The Junior Classics, Volume 5: Stories that never grow old
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The Junior Classics, Volume 5: Stories that never grow old
Children's literature
any other effect, further than a little to discompose them. I had
now fastened all the hooks, and, taking the knot in my hand, began
to pull, but not a ship would stir, for they were all too fast
held by their anchors, so that the boldest part of my enterprise
remained. I therefore let go the cord, and leaving the hooks fixed
to the ships, I resolutely cut with my knife the cables that
fastened the anchors, receiving above two hundred shots in my face
and hands; then I took up the knotted end of the cables to which
my hooks were tied, and with great ease drew fifty of the enemy's
largest men-of-war after me.
The Blefuscudians, who had not the least imagination of what I
intended, were at first confounded with astonishment. They had
seen me cut the cables, and thought my design was only to let the
ships run adrift, or fall foul on each other; but when they
perceived the whole fleet moving in order, and saw me pulling at
the end, they set up such a scream of grief and despair that it is
almost impossible to describe or conceive. When I had got out of
danger, I stopped a while to pick out the arrows that stuck in my
hands and face; and rubbed on some of the same ointment that was
given me at my first arrival, as I have formerly mentioned. I then
took off my spectacles, and, waiting about an hour till the tide
was a little fallen, I waded through the middle with my cargo, and
arrived safe at the royal port of Lilliput.
The emperor and his whole court stood on the shore expecting the
issue of this great adventure. They saw the ships move forward in
a large half-moon, but could not discern me, who was up to my
breast in water. When I advanced to the middle of the channel,
they were yet in more pain, because I was under water to my neck.
The emperor concluded me to be drowned, and that the enemy's fleet
was approaching in a hostile manner; but he was soon eased of his
fears, for the channel growing shallower every step I made, I came
in a short time within hearing, and, holding up the end of the
cable by which the fleet was fastened, I cried in a loud voice,
"Long live the most puissant Emperor of Lilliput!" This great
prince received me at my landing with all possible encomiums, and
created me a _nardac_ upon the spot, which is the highest
title of honor among them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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