; 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 forward with the butt-ends
of their pikes into my reach. I took them all in 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 people were highly delighted at 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, that was of smooth
stone. By the same computation, they provided me with sheets, blankets,
and coverlets, tolerable enough for one who had been so long inured to
hardships.

As the news of my arrival spread through the kingdom, it brought
prodigious numbers of rich, idle, and curious people to see me; so that
the villages were almost emptied; and great neglect of tillage and
household affairs must have ensued, if his imperial majesty had not
provided, by several proclamations and orders of state, against this
inconveniency. He directed that those who had already beheld me should
return home, and not presume to come within fifty yards of my house,
without license from the court; whereby the secretaries of state got
considerable fees.

In the mean time the emperor held frequent councils, to debate what
course should be taken with me; and I was afterwards assured by a
particular fri