ot very common; the whole story and circumstances of which I shall
faithfully relate.

I had now been two years in this country, and about the beginning of
the third, Glumdalclitch and I attended the king and queen in a
progress to the south coast of the kingdom. I was carried as usual in
my traveling box, which, as I have already described, was a very
convenient closet of twelve feet wide. And I had ordered a hammock to
be fixed by silken ropes from the four corners at the top, to break
the jolts when a servant carried me before him on horseback, as I
sometimes desired; and would often sleep in my hammock, while we were
upon the road. On the roof of my closet, not directly over the middle
of the hammock, I ordered the joiner to cut out a hole of a foot
square, to give me air in hot weather as I slept; which hole I shut at
pleasure, with a board that drew backwards and forwards through a
groove.

When we came to our journey's end, the king thought proper to pass a
few days at a palace he hath near Flanflasnic, a city within eighteen
English miles of the seaside. Glumdalclitch and I were much
fatigued,--I had gotten a small cold, but the poor girl was so ill as
to be confined to her chamber. I longed to see the ocean, which must
be the only scene of my escape, if ever it should happen. I pretended
to be worse than I really was, and desired leave to take the fresh air
of the sea, with a page I was very fond of, and who had sometimes been
trusted with me. I shall never forget with what unwillingness
Glumdalclitch consented, nor the strict charge she gave the page to be
careful of me, bursting at the same time into a flood of tears, as if
she had some foreboding of what was to happen. The boy took me out in
my box, about half an hour's walk from the palace towards the rocks on
the seashore. I ordered him to set me down, and, lifting up one of my
sashes, cast many a wistful, melancholy look towards the sea. I found
myself not very well, and told the page that I had a mind to take a
nap in my hammock, which I hoped would do me good. I got in, and the
boy shut the window close down to keep out the cold. I soon fell
asleep, and all I can conjecture is, that while I slept, the page,
thinking no danger could happen, went among the rocks to look for
birds' eggs, having before observed him from my window searching
about, and picking up one or two in the clefts. Be that as it will, I
found myself suddenly awakened with a violent p