aw.

But his imperial majesty, fully determined against capital punishment,
was graciously pleaded to say, that since the council thought the loss
of your eyes too easy a censure, some other might be inflicted
hereafter. And your friend, the secretary, humbly desiring to be heard
again, in answer to what the treasurer had objected concerning the great
charge his majesty was at in maintaining you, said that his excellency,
who had the sole disposal of the emperor's revenue, might easily provide
against that evil, by gradually lessening your establishment; by which,
for want of sufficient food, you would grow weak and faint, and lose
your appetite, and consume in a few months; neither would the stench of
your carcase be then so dangerous when it should become more than half
diminished; and, immediately upon your death, five or six thousand of
his majesty's subjects might in two or three days cut your flesh from
your bones, take it away by cart-loads, and bury it in distant parts, to
prevent infection, leaving the skeleton as a monument of admiration to
posterity.

Thus, by the great friendship of the secretary, the whole affair was
compromised. It was strictly enjoined that the project of starving you
by degrees should be kept a secret, but the sentence of putting out your
eyes was entered on the books, none dissenting except Bolgolam, the
admiral, who, being a creature of the empress, was perpetually
instigated by her majesty to insist upon your death, she having borne
perpetual malice against you, on account of that illegal method you took
to remove her and her children the night of the fire.

In three days, your friend the secretary will be directed to come to
your house and read before you the articles of impeachment; and then to
signify the great lenity and favor of his majesty and council, whereby
you are only condemned to the loss of your eyes, which his majesty doth
not question you will gratefully and humbly submit to; and twenty of his
majesty's surgeons will attend, in order to see the operation well
performed, by discharging very sharp-pointed arrows into the balls of
your eyes as you lie on the ground.

I leave to your prudence what measures you will take; and, to avoid
suspicion, I must immediately return, in as private a manner as I came.

His lordship did so, and I remained alone, under many doubts and
perplexities of mind.

It was a custom, introduced by this prince and his ministry (very
different