texture.  Thus he hoped to undermine Wauwau, and suddenly rising, seize her by the foot, while his brother Gog ascended the air in a balloon, hoping to catch her if she could escape Magog.  Thus the animal was surrounded on every side, and at first was very much terrified, knowing not which way she had best to go.  At length hearing an obscure noise under ground, Wauwau took flight before Magog could have time to catch her by the foot.  She flew to the right, then to the left, north, east, west, and south, but found on every side the company prepared upon their nets.  At length she flew right up, soaring at a most astonishing rate towards the sun, while the company on every side set up one general acclamation.  But Gog in his balloon soon stopped Wauwau in the midst of her career, and snared her in a net, the cords of which he continued to hold in his hand.  Wauwau did not totally lose her presence of mind, but after a little consideration, made several violent darts against the volume of the balloon; so fierce, as at length to tear open a great space, on which the inflammable air rushing out, the whole apparatus began to tumble to the earth with amazing rapidity.  Gog himself was thrown out of the vehicle, and letting go the reins of the net, Wauwau got liberty again, and flew out of sight in an instant.

Gog had been above a mile elevated from the earth when he began to fall, and as he advanced the rapidity increased, so that he went like a ball from a cannon into the morass, and his nose striking against one of the iron-capped hands of his brother Magog, just then rising from the depths, he began to bleed violently, and, but for the softness of the morass, would have lost his life.

CHAPTER XXXII

The Baron harangues the company, and they continue the pursuit—­The Baron, wandering from his retinue, is taken by the savages, scalped, and tied to a stake to be roasted; but he contrives to extricate himself, and kills the savages—­The Baron travels overland through the forests of North America, to the confines of Russia—­Arrives at the castle of the Nareskin Rowskimowmowsky, and gallops into the kingdom of Loggerheads—­A battle, in which the Baron fights the Nareskin in single combat, and generously gives him his life—­Arrives at the Friendly Islands, and discourses with Omai—­The Baron, with all his attendants, goes from Otaheite to the isthmus of Darien, and having cut a canal across the isthmus, returns to England.

“My friends, and very learned and profound Judiciarii,” said I, “be not disheartened that Wauwau has escaped from you at present:  persevere, and we shall yet succeed.  You should never despair, Munchausen being your general; and therefore be brave, be courageous, and fortune shall second your endeavours.  Let us advance undaunted in pursuit, and follow the fierce Wauwau even three times round the globe, until we entrap her.”