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 backward and forward through a groove.

When we came to our journey’s end, the king thought proper to pass a few days at a palace he hath near Flanflasnic, a city within eighteen English miles of the seaside.  Glumdalclitch and I were much fatigued:  I had gotten a small cold, but the poor girl was so ill as to be confined to her chamber.  I longed to see the ocean, which must be the only scene of my escape, if ever it should happen.  I pretended to be worse than I really was, and desired leave to take the fresh air of the sea, with a page whom I was very fond of, and who had sometimes been trusted with me.  I shall never forget with what unwillingness Glumdalclitch consented, nor the strict charge she gave the page to be careful of me, bursting at the same time into a flood of tears, as if she had some foreboding of what was to happen.

The boy took me out in my box, about half an hour’s walk from the palace, toward the rocks on the seashore.[23] I ordered him to set me down, and lifting up one of my sashes, cast many a wistful, melancholy look toward the sea.  I found myself not very well, and told the page that I had a mind to take a nap in my hammock, which I hoped would do me good.  I got in, and the boy shut the window close down, to keep out the cold.  I soon fell asleep, and all I can conjecture is, that while I slept the page, thinking no danger could happen, went among the rocks to look for bird’s eggs, having before observed him from my window searching about, and picking up one or two in the clefts.

[Footnote 23:  Here again we have a striking contrast—­the “half an hour’s walk” of eighteen miles set over against the day and a half’s ride of one-half mile in Lilliput.]

Be that as it will, I found myself suddenly awaked with a violent pull upon the ring, which was fastened at the top of my box for the conveniency of carriage.  I felt my box raised very high in the air, and then borne forward with prodigious speed.  The first jolt had like to have shaken me out of my hammock, but afterward the motion was easy enough.  I called out several times as loud as I could raise my voice, but all to no purpose.

I looked toward my windows, and could see nothing but the clouds and sky.  I heard a noise just over my head, like the clapping of wings, and then began to perceive the woeful condition I was in; that some eagle had got the ring of my box in his beak, with an intent to let it fall on a rock, like a tortoise in a shell, and then pick out my body, and devour it:  for the sagacity and smell of this bird enable him to discover his quarry at a great distance, though better concealed than I could be within a two-inch board.