loyed to
draw up these cords by many pulleys fastened on the poles; and thus, in
less than three hours, I was raised and slung into the engine, and tied
fast.

[Illustration]

All this I was told; for, while the whole operation was performing, I
lay in a profound sleep, by the force of that soporiferous medicine
infused into my liquor. Fifteen hundred of the emperor's largest horses,
each about four inches and a half high, were employed to draw me
towards the metropolis, which, as I said, was half a mile distant.

About four hours after we began our journey, I awaked, by a very
ridiculous accident; for, the carriage being stopt a while, to adjust
something that was out of order, two or three of the young natives had
the curiosity to see how I looked, when I was asleep. They climbed up
into the engine, and advancing very softly to my face, one of them, an
officer in the guards, put the sharp end of his half-pike[11] a good way
up into my left nostril, which tickled my nose like a straw, and made me
sneeze violently; whereupon they stole off, unperceived, and it was
three weeks before I knew the cause of my awaking so suddenly.

We made a long march the remaining part of the day, and rested at night
with five hundred guards on each side of me, half with torches, and half
with bows and arrows, ready to shoot me, if I should offer to stir. The
next morning, at sunrise, we continued our march, and arrived within two
hundred yards of the city gates about noon. The emperor, and all his
court, came out to meet us; but his great officers would by no means
suffer his majesty to endanger his person, by mounting on my body.

At the place where the carriage stopt, there stood an ancient temple,
esteemed to be the largest in the whole kingdom, which, having been
polluted some years before by an unnatural murder, was, according to the
zeal of those people, looked upon as profane, and therefore had been
applied to common use, and all the ornaments and furniture carried
away. In this edifice it was determined I should lodge. The great gate,
fronting to the north, was about four feet high, and almost two feet
wide, through which I could easily creep. On each side of the gate was a
small window, not above six inches from the ground; into that on the
left side the king's smith conveyed four score and eleven chains, like
those that hang to a lady's watch in Europe, and almost as large, which
were locked to my left leg with six-and-thir