flect how vain an
attempt it is for a man to endeavor doing himself honor among those who
are out of all degree of equality or comparison with him. And yet I have
seen the moral of my own behavior very frequent in England since my
return; where a little, contemptible varlet, without the least title to
birth, person, wit, or common sense, shall presume to look with
importance, and put himself upon a foot with the greatest persons of the
kingdom.[22]

[Footnote 22: Gulliver's hatred of mankind betrays him, even in the
midst of his mildest satire, into such sharp, biting remarks as
this.]

[Illustration: GULLIVER AND THE KING]

_IV. A Wonderful Escape_

I had always a strong impulse that I should some time recover my
liberty, though it was impossible to conjecture by what means, or to
form any project with the least hope of succeeding. The ship in which I
sailed was the first ever known to be driven within sight of that coast,
and the king had given strict orders that if at any time another
appeared it should be taken ashore, and, with all its crew and
passengers, brought in a tumbrel to the capital. I was indeed treated
with much kindness; I was the favorite of a great king and queen, and
the delight of the whole court; but it was upon such a foot as ill
became the dignity of human kind. I could never forget those domestic
pledges I had left behind me. I wanted to be among people with whom I
could, converse upon even terms, and walk about the streets and fields
without fear of being trod to death like a frog or a young puppy. But my
deliverance came sooner than I expected, and in a manner not very
common; the whole story and circumstances of which I shall faithfully
relate.

I had now been two years in the 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, a very convenient closet of twelve foot 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 ba