I have often seen the militia of Lorbrulgrud drawn
out to exercise, in a great field near the city of
twenty miles square. They were in all not above
twenty-five thousand foot, and six thousand horse;
but it was impossible for me to compute their number,
considering the space of ground they took up.
A cavalier, mounted on a large steed, might be about
ninety feet high. I have seen this whole body
of horse, upon a word of command, draw their swords
at once, and brandish them in the air. Imagination
can figure nothing so grand, so surprising, and so
astonishing! it looked as if ten thousand flashes
of lightning were darting at the same time from every
quarter of the sky.
I was curious to know how this prince, to whose dominions
there is no access from any other country, came to
think of armies, or to teach his people the practice
of military discipline. But I was soon informed,
both by conversation and reading their histories;
for, in the course of many ages, they have been troubled
with the same disease to which the whole race of mankind
is subject; the nobility often contending for power,
the people for liberty, and the king for absolute
dominion. All which, however happily tempered
by the laws of that kingdom, have been sometimes violated
by each of the three parties, and have more than once
occasioned civil wars; the last whereof was happily
put an end to by this prince’s grand-father,
in a general composition; and the militia, then settled
with common consent, has been ever since kept in the
strictest duty.
CHAPTER VIII.
[The king and queen make a progress to the frontiers.
The author attends them. The manner in which
he leaves the country very particularly related.
He returns to England.]
I had always a strong impulse that I should some time
recover my liberty, though it was impossible to conjecture
by what means, or to form any project with the least
hope of succeeding. The ship in which I sailed,
was the first ever known to be driven within sight
of that coast, and the king had given strict orders,
that if at any time another appeared, it should be
taken ashore, and with all its crew and passengers
brought in a tumbril to Lorbrulgrud. He was
strongly bent to get me a woman of my own size, by
whom I might propagate the breed: but I think
I should rather have died than undergone the disgrace
of leaving a posterity to be kept in cages, like tame
canary-birds, and perhaps, in time, sold about the
kingdom, to persons of quality, for curiosities.
I was indeed treated with much kindness: I
was the favourite of a great king and queen, and the
delight of the whole court; but it was upon such a
foot as ill became the dignity of humankind.
I could never forget those domestic pledges I had
left behind me. I wanted to be among people,
with whom I could converse upon even terms, and walk
about the streets and fields without being afraid of
being trod to death like a frog or a young puppy.
But my deliverance came sooner than I expected, and
in a manner not very common; the whole story and circumstances
of which I shall faithfully relate.
