Gulliver asked, by signs, that his bonds might be loosed.  The officer shook his head and refused, but he allowed some of his soldiers to slack the cords on one side, whereby Gulliver was able to feel more comfortable.  After this, the little people drew out the arrows that still stuck in his hands and face, and rubbed the wounds with some pleasant-smelling ointment, which so soothed his pain that very soon he fell sound asleep.  And this was no great wonder, for, as he afterwards understood, the King’s physicians had mixed a very strong sleeping draught with the wine that had been given him.

Gulliver awoke with a violent fit of sneezing, and with the feeling of small feet running away from off his chest.

Where was he?  Bound still, without doubt, but no longer did he find himself lying on the ground.  It puzzled him greatly that now he lay on a sort of platform.  How had he got there?

Soon he began to realize what had happened; and later, when he understood the language, he learned all that had been done to him while he slept.  Before he dropped asleep, he had heard a rumbling as of wheels, and the shouts of many drivers.  This, it seemed, was caused by the arrival of a huge kind of trolley, a few inches high, but nearly seven feet long, drawn by fifteen hundred of the King’s largest horses.

On this it was meant that he should be taken to the city.  By the use of strong poles fixed in the ground, to which were attached many pulleys, and the strongest ropes to be found in the country, nine hundred men managed to hoist him as he slept.  They then put him on the trolley, where they again tied him fast.

It was when they were far on their way to the city that Gulliver awoke.  The trolley had stopped for a little to breathe the horses, and one of the officers of the King’s Guard who had not before seen Gulliver, climbed with some friends up his body.  While looking at his face, the officer could not resist the temptation of putting the point of his sword up Gulliver’s nose, which tickled him so that he woke, sneezing violently.

III

GULLIVER IS TAKEN AS A PRISONER TO THE CAPITAL OF LILLIPUT

The city was not reached till the following day, and Gulliver had to spend the night lying where he was, guarded on each side by five hundred men with torches and bows and arrows, ready to shoot him if he should attempt to move.

In the morning, the King and all his court, and thousands of the people, came out to gaze on the wonderful sight.  The trolley, with Gulliver on it, stopped outside the walls, alongside a very large building which had once been used as a temple, but the use of which had been given up owing to a murder having been committed in it.

The door of this temple was quite four feet high and about two feet wide, and on each side, about six inches from the ground, was a small window.  Inside the building the King’s blacksmiths fastened many chains, which they then brought through one of these little windows and padlocked round Gulliver’s left ankle.  Then his bonds were cut, and he was allowed to get up.  He found that he could easily creep through the door, and that there was room inside to lie down.