I had now been two years in this 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 travelling-box, which, as I have already described, was a very convenient closet of twelve feet 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 backwards and forwards 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 of the sea-side 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[85] 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 towards the rocks on the sea-shore.  I ordered him to set me down, and lifting up one of my sashes, cast many a wistful melancholy look towards 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 birds’ eggs, having before observed him from my windows searching about, and picking up one or two in the clefts.  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 afterwards 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 towards 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 woful 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 enabled him to discover his quarry[86] at a great distance, though better concealed than I could be within a two-inch board.