signed those articles, upon which I
recovered my liberty, there were some which I disliked, upon account of
their being too servile; neither could anything but an extreme necessity
have forced me to submit. But, being now a _nardac_ of the highest rank
in that empire, such offices were looked upon as below my dignity, and
the emperor, to do him justice, never once mentioned them to me.
However, it was not long before I had an opportunity of doing his
majesty, at least as I then thought, a most signal service. I was
alarmed at midnight with the cries of many hundred people at my door, by
which, being suddenly awaked, I was in some kind of terror. I heard the
word _burglum_ repeated incessantly.

Several of the emperor's court, making their way through the crowd,
entreated me to come immediately to the palace, where her imperial
majesty's apartment was on fire, by the carelessness of a maid of honor,
who fell asleep while she was reading a romance. I got up in an instant;
and orders being given to clear the way before me, and it being likewise
a moonshine night, I made a shift to get to the palace, without
trampling on any of the people. I found they had already applied ladders
to the walls of the apartment, and were well provided with buckets, but
the water was at some distance. These buckets were about the size of a
large thimble, and the poor people supplied me with them as fast as they
could; but the flame was so violent that they did little good. I might
easily have stifled it with my coat, which I unfortunately left behind
me for haste, and came away only in my leathern jerkin. The case seemed
wholly desperate and deplorable, and this magnificent palace would have
infallibly been burnt down to the ground, if, by a presence of mind
unusual to me, I had not suddenly thought of an expedient by which in
three minutes the fire was wholly extinguished, and the rest of that
noble pile, which had cost so many ages in erecting, preserved from
destruction.

[Illustration]

It was now daylight, and I returned to my house, without waiting to
congratulate with the emperor; because, although I had done a very
eminent piece of service, yet I could not tell how his majesty might
resent the manner by which I had performed it: for, by the fundamental
laws of the realm, it is capital in any man, of what quality soever, to
even touch the empress or the royal princesses without invitation. But I
was a little comforted by a message fr