_Nasgig comes with a guard to fetch Peter--Long debate about his
going--Nasgig's uneasiness at Peter's refusal--Relates a prediction to
him, and proceedings thereon at Georigetti's court--Peter consents to
go--Prepares a machine for that purpose._
WE were waked by the trumpet giving notice of Nasgig's coming; I
did not care to inquire of the strangers into the particulars of his
embassy; "for be it what it will," thinks I, "Nasgig is so much my
friend that I can know the motives of it from him, and, or I am much
deceived, he is too honest to impose upon me." But I had but little
time for thought, for upon our entering the level, we found him and his
train, of at least a hundred persons, just alighting before us.
We embraced, and professed the particular pleasure fortune had done us
in once more meeting together. When we arrived at the grotto, he told
me he was assured I had been informed of the occasion of his visit; and
that it would be the greatest honour done to his country that could be
imagined. He then laid his hand on my beard, which was now of about five
months' growth, having never shaved it since my father went, and told
he was glad to see that.--"And are you not so to see me?" says I.--"Yes,
surely," says he, "for I prize that for your sake."--"But," says I,
"pray be open with me, and tell me what you mean by my being informed of
the occasion of your coming?"--"Why," says he, "of Georigetti's message
to you, as it will be of such infinite service to our country: and,"
says he, "if you had not consented to it, the messengers had returned
and stopped me."--"True," says I, "one of the messengers told me the
king would be glad to see me; which as I, so well as he, knew it was
impossible he should, in return to his compliment, I believe I might say
what a happiness it would be to me if I could wait on him. But pray what
is your immediate message? for I hear you are in great favour at court,
and would never have come hither with this retinue in so much ceremony
on a trifling account."
"My dear Peter," says Nasgig, "know that your fame has reached far and
near since I saw you before; and our state, though a large and populous
one, and once of mighty power and twice its present extent, by the
revolt of the western part of it, who chose themselves a king, has
been so miserably harassed by wars, that the revolters, who are
ever fomenting discontent and rebellion amongst us, will, by the
encroachments they daily make on us, certainly reduce us at last to a
province under their government; which will render us all slaves to a
usurped power, set up against our lawful sovereign. Now these things
were foretold long enough before they actually began to be transacted;
but all being then at peace, and no prospect of what has since happened,
we looked not out for a remedy, till the disease became stubborn and
incurable."--"Pray," says I, "by whom were the things you mention
foretold?"--"By a very ancient and grave ragan," says he.--"How long
ago?" says I.--"Oh, above four times the age of the oldest man living,"
says he.--"And when did he say it would happen?" says I.--"That," says
he, "was not quite so clear then."--"But how do you know," says I, "that
he ever said any such thing?"--"Why, the thing itself was so peculiar,"
says he, "and the ragan delivered it so positively, that his successors
have ever since pronounced it twelve times a year publicly, word for
word, to put the people in mind of it, and from whom they must hope for
relief; and now the long-expected time being come, we have no hopes but
in your destruction of the tyrant-usurper."--"I destroy him!" says I:
"if he is not destroyed till I do it, I fear your state is but in a
bad case."--"My good friend Peter," says he, "you or nobody can do
it."--"Pugh," says I, "Nasgig, I took you for a man of more sense,
notwithstanding the prejudices of education, than to think, because you
have seen me kill a beast-fish that could not come to hurt me at the
distance of twenty paces, that I can kill your usurper at the distance
he is from me."--"No, my good friend," says Nasgig, "I know you take
me to have more judgment than to think so."--"Why, what else can I do,"
says I, "unless he will come hither to be killed by me?"--"Dear Peter,"
says he, "you will not hear me out."--"I will," says I, "say on."--"You,
as I said before, being the only person that can, according to our
prediction, destroy this usurper and restore peace among us, my master
Georigetti, and the whole state of Normnbdsgrsutt, were going to send
a splendid embassy to you; but your father advising to repose the
commission wholly in me, they all consented to it, and I am come to
invite you over to Brandleguarp for that purpose. I know you will tell
me you have not the graundee, and cannot get thither: but I am assured
you have what is far better; the wisdom you have will help you to
surmount that difficulty, which our whole moucheratt cannot get over.
And I am sure did you apply half the thought to accomplish it you seem
to do to invent excuses against it, you would easily overcome that. And
now, dear friend," continues he, "refuse me not; for as my first rise
was owing to your favour, so my downfall as absolutely attends your
refusal."
"Dear Nasgig," says I, "you know I love you, and could refuse you
nothing in my power; but for me to be mounted in the air, I know not
how, over these rocks, and then drowned by a fall into the sea, which
is a necessary consequence of such a mad attempt; and all this in
prosecution of a project founded upon an old wife's tale, is such a
chimera as all men of sense would laugh at; as if there was no way of
destroying me, but with a guard of a hundred men to souse me into the
wide ocean. A very pretty conqueror of rebels I should prove, truly,
kicking for life till the next wave sent me to the bottom."
Nasgig looked then so grave, I almost thought I should have heard no
more of it; but after a short pause, "Peter," says he, "I am sorry you
make so light of sacred things; a thing foretold so long ago by a holy
ragan, kept up by undoubted tradition ever since, in the manner I have
told you; in part performed, and now waiting your concurrence for its
accomplishment; but if I cannot prevail with you, though I perish at
my return, I dread to think you may be forced without thanks to perform
what generously to undertake will be your greatest glory."
"Pray," says I, "Nasgig (for now I perceive you are in earnest), what
may this famous prediction be?"
"Ah, Peter!" says Nasgig, "to what purpose should I relate so sacred
a prediction to one who, though the most concerned in it, makes such a
jest of it?"
His mentioning me as concerned in it, raised my curiosity once more to
desire a relation of it. "Why should I relate it," says he, "if you
are resolved not to fulfil it?"--I told him I had no resolution against
anything that related to my own good, or that of my friends. "But the
greatest question with me," says I, "is, whether I am at all concerned
in it."--"Oh clearly, clearly!" says he, "there is no doubt of it; it
must mean you or nobody."--I told him I must judge by the words of it
that I was the person intended by it; and till that was apparent to my
reason, it would be difficult to procure my consent to so perilous
an undertaking.--"And," says he, "will you, upon hearing it, judge
impartially, and go with me if you can take the application to
yourself?"--"I cannot go quite so far as that," says I; "but this I'll
promise you, I'll judge impartially, and if I can so apply it to myself,
that it must necessarily mean me, and no other, and if you convince me I
may go safely, I will go."
Nasgig was so rejoiced at this, he was at a loss how to express himself.
"My dear Peter," says he, "you have given me new life! our state is
free! our persons free! we are free! we are free! And, Peter," says he,
"now I have given vent to my joy, you shall hear the prediction.
"You must know, this holy ragan lived four ages ago; and from certain
dreams and revelations he had had, set himself to overturn our
country-worship of the Great Image; and by his sanctity of life, and
sound reasonings, had almost effected it under the assistance of
Begsurbeck, then our king, who had fully embraced his tenets; but the
rest of the ragans opposing him, and finding he could not advance his
scheme, he withdrew from the ragans to a close retirement for several
years; and just before his death, sending for the king and all the
ragans, he told them he should certainly die that day, and that he could
not die at peace till he had informed them what had been revealed to
him; desiring them to take notice of it, not as a conjecture of his own,
but a certain verity which should hereafter come to pass. Says he, 'you
know you have rejected the alteration in your religion I proposed to
you; and which Begsurbeck, here present, would have advanced; and now I
must tell you what you have brought upon yourselves. As for Begsurbeck,
he shall reign the longest and most prosperously of all your former and
future kings; but in twice his time outrun, the west shall be divided
from the east, and bring sorrow, confusion, and slaughter, till the
waters of the earth shall produce a glumm, with hair round his head,
swimming and flying without the graundee; who, with unknown fire and
smoke, shall destroy the traitor of the west, settle the ancient limits
of the monarchy, by common consent establish what I would have taught
you, change the name of this country, introduce new laws and arts, add
kingdoms to this state, and force tributes from the bowels of the earth
of such things as this kingdom shall not know till then, and shall never
afterwards want; and then shall return to the waters again. Take care,'
says he, 'you miss not the opportunity when it may be had; for once
lost, it shall never, never more return; and then, woe, woe, woe to my
poor country!'--The ragan having said this, expired.
"This prediction made so great an impression on Begsurbeck, that he
ordered all the ragans singly before him, and heard them repeat it;
which having done, and made himself perfect in it, he ordered it to
be pronounced twelve times in the year on particular days, in the
moucherait, that the people might learn it by heart; that they and their
children being perfect in it, might not fail of applying it, when the
man from the waters should appear with proper description.
"Thus, Peter," says he, "has this prediction been kept up in our
memories as perfectly as if it had but just been pronounced to
us."--:"'Tis very true," says I, "here may have been a prediction, and
it may have been, as you say, handed down very exactly from Begsurbeck's
days till now; but how does that affect me? how am I concerned in it?
Surely, if any marks would have denoted me to be the man, some of the
colambs who have so lately left me, and were so long with me, would have
found them out in my person, or among the several actions of my life
I recounted to them."--"Upon the return of the colambs from you,"
says Nasgig, "they told his majesty what they had heard and seen at
Graundevolet, and the story was conveyed through the whole realm: but
every man has not the faculty of distinction. Now, one of the ragans,
when he had heard of you, applying you to the prediction, and that to
you, soon found our deliverer in you; and at a public moucheratt,
after first pronouncing the prediction, declared himself thereon to the
following effect:
"'May it please your majesty--and you the honourable colambs--the
reverend ragans--and people of this state,' says he, 'you all know that
our famous king Begsurbeck, who reigned at the time of this prediction,
did live sixty years after it in the greatest splendour, and died at the
age of one hundred and twenty years, having reigned full ninety of them;
and herein you will all agree with me, no king before or since has done
the like. You all likewise know, that within two hundred years after
Begsurbeck's death, that is, about twice his reign of ninety years
outrun, the rebellion in the west began, which has been carried on ever
since; and our strength diminishing as theirs increases, we are now no
fair match for them, but are fearful of being undone. So far you will
agree matters have tallied with the prediction; and now, to look
forward to the time to come, it becomes us to lay hold of the present
opportunity for our relief, for that, once slipped, will never return;
and if I have any skill in interpretations, now is the time of our
deliverance.
"'Our prediction foretells the past evils, their increase and
continuance, till the waters of the earth shall produce a glumm. Here
I must appeal to the honourable colambs present, if the waters have
not done so in the person of glumm Peter of Graundevolet, as they have
received it from his own report.'
"All the colambs then rising, and making reverence to the king, declared
it was most true.
"'The next part,' says the ragan, 'is, he is to be hairy round his head;
and how his person in this respect agrees with the prediction, I beg
leave to be informed by the colambs.'
"The colambs then rising, declared that having seen and conversed with
him, they could not observe any hair on the fore part of his head; but I
answered that when I left you I well remembered your having short stubbs
of hair upon your cheeks and chin; which I had no sooner mentioned than
your father arose and told the assembly that though he did not mind
it whilst he was with you, yet he remembered that his daughter, a year
before, had told him that you had hair on your face before as long as
that behind.
"This again putting new life into the ragan, he proceeded--'Then let
this,' says he, 'be put to the trial by an embassy to glumm Peter; and
if it answers, there will be no room to doubt the rest. Then,' says the
ragan, 'it is plain by the report of the colambs, that glumm Peter has
not the graundee.
"'As to the next point, he is to swim and fly. Now I am informed he
swims daily in a thing he calls a boat.'--To which the colambs all
agreed.--'And now,' says he, 'that he flies too, that must be fulfilled;
for every word must have a meaning, and that indeed he must do if ever
he comes hither. I therefore advise that a contrivance be somehow found
out for conveying glumm Peter through the air to us, and then we shall
answer that part of the prediction; and I think, and do not doubt, but
that may be done.
"'Now,' says he, 'let us see the benefit predicted to us upon the
arrival of glumm Peter. Our words are: "Who, with unknown fire and
smoke, shall destroy the traitor of the west." What can be plainer than
this? For I again appeal to the colambs for his making unknown fire and
smoke.
"'Thus far,' says the ragan, 'we have succeeded happily towards a
discovery of the person; but it ends not here with the death of the
traitor; but such other benefits are to accrue as are mentioned in the
following part of the prediction: they are blessings yet to come, and
who knows the end of them?
"'I hope,' says the ragan, 'I have given satisfaction in what I have
said, and shall now leave it to the care of those whose business it is
to provide that none of those woes pronounced against us may happen, by
missing the time which, when gone, will never return.'
"The assembly were coming to a resolution of sending you a pompous
embassy, but your father prevailed for sending me only; 'For,' says he,
'my son thinks better of him than of the rest of our whole race.' So
this important affair was committed to me, with orders to prepare a
conveyance for you, which I cannot attempt to do; but shall refer myself
to your more solid judgment in the contrivance of it."
I had sat very attentive to Nasgig, and from what he had declared, could
not say but there was a very great resemblance between myself and the
person predicted of. "But then," says I, "they are idolaters: Providence
would not interpose in this affair, when all the glory of its success
must redound to an idol. But," says I, "has not the same thing often
happened from oracular presages, where the glory must redound to the
false deity? But what if, as is predicted, their religion is to be
changed to the old ragan's plan, and that will be to the abolition of
idolatry? I know not what to say; but if I thought my going would gain a
single soul to the eternal truth, I would not scruple to hazard my life
in the attempt."
I then called in Youwarkee, told her the whole affair of the prediction,
which she had often heard, I found, and could have repeated. I told her
that the king and states had pitched on me as the person intended by
their prediction, and that Nasgig was sent to fetch me over: "And
indeed," says I, "Youwee, if this be a true prediction, it seems very
applicable to me as far as I can see."--"Yes, truly," says she, "so it
does, now I consider it in the light you say the ragan puts it."--
"Why," says I, "prophecies and predictions are never so plain as to
mention names; but yet, upon the solution, they become as intelligible
as if they did, the circumstances tallying so exactly. But what would
you have me do? Shall I, or shall I not, go?"--"Go!" says she, "how can
you go?"--"Oh," says I, "never fear that. If this is from above, means
will soon be found; Providence never directs effects without means."
Youwarkee, whose head ran only on the dangers of the undertaking, had
a violent conflict with herself; the love of me, of her children, and of
her country, divided her so, she was not capable of advising. I pressed
her opinion again, when she told me to follow the dictates of my own
reason; "And but for the dread of losing you, and for my children's
sakes," says she, "I should have no choice to make when my country is at
stake: but you know best."
I told Youwarkee that I really found the prediction the plainer the more
I thought of it; and that, above all, the change of religion was the
uppermost; for if I can reduce a State from the misery and bondage of
idolatry to a true sense of the Supreme Being, and seemingly by His own
direction, shall I fear to risk my own life for it? or, will He suffer
me to perish till somewhat at least is done towards it? And how do I
know but the whole tendency of my life has been by impulse hither for
this very purpose? "My dear Youwee," says I, "fear nothing, I will go."
I called Nasgig, and told him my resolution, and that he had nothing now
to do but prepare a means of conveying me.--He said he begged to refer
that to me, for my own thoughts would suggest to me both the safest and
easiest means.
I wanted to venture on the back of some strong glumm; when Nasgig told
me no one could endure my weight so long a flight. But what charmed me
most was, the lovely Youwarkee offered to carry me herself if she could:
"And if I can't hold out," says she, "my dear, we can but at last drop
both together." I kissed the charming creature with tears in my eyes,
but declined 'the experiment.
I told Nasgig I wanted to divide my weight between two or four glumms,
which I believed I could easily do; and asked if each could hold out
with a fourth part of my weight.--He told me there was no doubt of that;
but he was afraid I should drop between their graundees, he imagining I
intended to lie along on their backs, part of me on each of them, or
should bear so much on them as to prevent their flight. I told him I did
not purpose to dispose of myself in the manner he presumed, but if two
or four could undoubtedly bear my weight so long a flight, I would order
myself without any other inconvenience to my bearers than their burden.
He made light of my weight between four, as a trifle, and said he would
be one with all his heart.--"Nay," says I, "if four cannot hold out, can
eight?" He plainly told me, as he knew not what I meant, he could say
nothing to it, nor could imagine how I could divide so small a body as
mine into eight different weights, for it seemed impossible, he said, to
him; but if I would show him my method, he would then give me his
opinion.
I then, leaving him, took out my tools: I pitched upon a strong board my
wife had sent me from the ship, about twelve feet long, and a foot and
a half broad, upon the middle of which I nailed down one of my chairs;
then I took one cord of about thirty-four feet long, making handloops
at each end, and nailed it down in the middle to the under-side of my
board, as near as I could to the fore-end of it, and I took another cord
of the same length and make, and this I nailed within three feet of the
farther end of my board. I then took a cord of about twenty feet long,
and nailed about three feet before the foremost, and a fourth of the
same length, at the farther end of my board; by which means the first
and third ropes being the longest and at such a distance from the short
ropes, the glumms who held them would fly so much higher and forwarder
than the short-rope ones, that they and their ropes would be quite out
of the others' way, which would not have happened if either the ropes
had been all of one length, or nearer to or farther from one another;
and then considering that if I should receive a sudden jerk or twitch,
I might possibly be shook off my chair, I took a smaller rope to tie
myself with fast to the chair, and then I was sure if I fell into the
sea I should at least have the board and chair with me, which might
possibly buoy me up till the glumms could descend to my assistance.
Having carried the machine down to the level with the help of two
of Nasgig's men, he being out on a walk, and having never seen it, I
ordered one of the men to sit upon the chair, and eight more to hold by
the loops and rise with him; but, as I found it difficult at their first
rising, not being able to mount all equally, to carry the board up even,
and the back part rising first, the front pitched against the ground
and threw the fellow out of the chair, I therefore bade them stop, and
ordering eight others to me, said I, "Hold each of you one of these
ropes as high as you can over your heads; then." says I to the eight
bearers, "mount on your graundees, and come round behind him in the
chair gently, two and two, and take each of you a loop, and hover with
it till you are all ready, and then rise together, keeping your eye on
the board that it rises neither higher at one end nor one side than the
other, and see you all feel your weight alike; then fly across the lake
and back again." They did so, and with as much ease, they told me, as if
they had nothing in their hands; and the man rode with so much state and
composure, he said, that I longed to try it myself; so, shifting places
with the glumm, I mounted the chair, and tying myself round, I asked if
any one knew which way Nasgig walked. One of them pointing to where he
saw him just before in the wood, I ordered them to take me up as before,
and go that way.
Upon coming to the place where I expected Nasgig was, I hallooed and
called him; who, knowing my voice, ran to the skirt of the wood; and
seeing me mounted in my flying chair, I jokingly told him I was going,
if he had any commands; but he mounting immediately came up to me, and
viewing me round, and seeing the pleasure the men seemed to carry
me with, says he, "Are you all sure you can carry him safe to
Battringdrigg?"--They all replied, "Yes, with ease."--"This then," says
he, "is your doom: if you perform it not, every one shall be slit; but
if you carry the deliverer safe, you are filgays every man of you!" he
verily thinking I was then going off; but I undeceived him, by ordering
them to turn about and set me down where I was taken up.
Nasgig alighting and viewing my contrivance, "This, Peter," says he, "is
but a very plain thing."--"It is so," says I, "but it is as far as my
ingenuity could reach."--"Ah, Peter!" says he "say not so, for if the
greatest difficulties, as I and all my nation thought it would be to
convey you to them, are so plain and easy to you, what must lesser
things be? No, Peter, I did not call it plain because it might be easily
done when it was seen, but in respect to the head that formed it; for
the nearest way to attain one's end is always the best, and attended
for the most part with fewest inconveniences; and I verily think, Peter,
though we believe the rise or fall of our State wholly depends on you,
you must have stayed at Graundevolet but for your own ingenuity. Well,
and when shall we set out?" says he.--I told him it would take up some
time to settle the affairs of my family, and to consider what I had best
take with me; and required at least three days, being as little as I
could have told him for that purpose.
Nasgig, who as he was an honest man, and for making the best for his
patrons, was sorry it was so long, though he, imagining at the same time
it was short enough for one who was to go on such an enterprise, was
glad it was no longer; and immediately despatched a trumpet express
with notice, that on the fourth day he should be at the height of
Battringdrigg, and that having myself formed a machine for that purpose,
I would accompany him.
I began next to consider what part I had to act at Doorpt Svangeanti
(for I neither could nor would call it by any other name when I came
thither), and what it was they expected from me. I am, says I, to kill
a traitor; good, that may be, but then I must take a gun and ammunition;
and why not some pistols and cutlasses? If I cannot use them all, I can
teach others who may. I will take several of them, and all my guns but
two, and I will leave a pair of pistols; I may return and want them. I
will take my two best suits of clothes, and other things suitable; for
if I am to perform things according to this prediction, it may be a long
time before I get back again. Thinks I, Youwarkee shall stay here with
the children, and if I like my settlement I can send for her at any
time. I then began to see the necessity of making at least one more
machine to carry my goods on. And says I, as they will be very weighty,
I must have more lasks to shift in carrying them, for I will retain
sixteen for my own body-machine, in order to relieve each other; and as
the distance is so great, I will not be stinted for want of fresh hands.
Being come to this resolution, I called Nasgig, and ordered eight
fresh lasks to attend my baggage; these he soon singled out: so,
having settled all matters with my wife, and taken leave of her and the
children, I charged them not to stir out of the grotto till I was gone;
and leaving them all in tears, I set out with a heavy heart for the
level, where the whole convoy and my two machines waited for me.
[Illustration: 5119]
[Illustration: 0120]