steadily drawing nearer, but they could not for some time
see Gulliver, because only his head was above water. At first some
imagined that he had been drowned, and that the fleet was now on its
way to attack Lilliput.

There was great joy when Gulliver was seen hauling the vessels; and
when he landed, the King was so pleased that on the spot he created
him a _Nardac_, the highest honor that it was in his power to bestow.

His great success over the Blefuscans, however, turned out to be but
the beginning of trouble for Gulliver. The King was so puffed up by
the victory that he formed plans for capturing in the same way the
whole of the enemy's ships of every kind. And it was now his wish to
crush Blefuscu utterly, and to make it nothing but a province
depending on Lilliput. Thus, he thought, he himself would then be
monarch of the whole world.

In this scheme Gulliver refused to take any part, and he very plainly
said that he would give no help in making slaves of the Blefuscans.
This refusal angered the King very much, and more than once he
artfully brought the matter up at a State Council. Now, several of the
councilors, though they pretended to be Gulliver's friends so long as
he was in favor with the King, were really his secret enemies, and
nothing pleased these persons better than to see that the King was no
longer pleased with him. So they did all in their power to nurse and
increase the King's anger, and to make him believe that Gulliver was a
traitor.

About this time there came to Lilliput ambassadors from Blefuscu,
suing for peace. When a treaty had been made and signed (very greatly
to the advantage of Lilliput), the Blefuscan ambassadors asked to see
the Great Man Mountain, of whom they had heard so much, and they paid
Gulliver a formal call. After asking him to give them some proofs of
his strength, they invited him to visit their Emperor, which Gulliver
promised to do.

Accordingly, the next time that he met the King, he asked, as he was
bound to do by the paper he had signed, for permission to leave the
country for a time, in order to visit Blefuscu. The King did not
refuse, but his manner was so cold that Gulliver could not help
noticing it. Afterwards he learned from a friend that his enemies in
the council had told the King lying tales of his meetings with the
Blefuscan ambassadors, which had had the effect of still further
rousing his anger.

It happened too, most unfortunately, at this time,