_Nasgig returns with the cannon--Peter informs him of the
execution--Appoints him a guard--Settles the order of his march against
Harlokin--Combat between Nasgig and the rebel general--The battle--Peter
returning with Harlokids head, is met by a Sweecoan--A public
festival--Slavery abolished._
THE tenth day Nasgig arrived, whilst I happened to be in the king's
garden; and hearing the trumpet coming before, I called out to him to
give Nasgig notice where I was, and to desire him to alight there.
After ceremonies past, and I had inquired after my wife and children,
and his answers had informed me of their healths, "Well," says Nasgig,
"my friend, am I to live or die?"--"Explain yourself," says I.--"Nay, I
only mean," says he, "have you discovered me to the king?"--"Pardon me,"
says I, "dear Nasgig, I must own the truth, I have."--"Then," says he,
"I suppose his majesty has no more commands for me?"--"No," says I,
"it is not so bad as that neither."--"But, pray," says he, "what says
Barbarsa to it?"--"Oh, nothing at all!" says I; "quite quiet."--"Nor
Yaccombourse? Did you discover her baseness to the king?"--"Yes," says
I, "and the king behaved like a king upon the occasion."--"And where
are they now?" says he.--"Only in Mount Alkoe," says I.--"Mount Alkoe!"
replies he, "what do you mean by that? How can they be in Mount Alkoe?
Did they go of their own accords?"--"They fled off, I suppose,
with ropes about their necks," says I, "as your criminals go to
Crashdoorpt."--"Are they slit too?" says he.--"No," says I, "but slipt,
I'll assure you. Come, my good friend, I'll let you into the history of
it." And then I told all that had happened, and the king's satisfaction
at the judgment of the moucheratt "And now," says I, "Nasgig, you may
call yourself the favourite, I promise you, for his majesty enjoys
himself but to greet you on your return: but have a care of power; most
grow giddy with it, and the next thing to that is a fall."--"Pray," says
he, "what is become of Nicor? Is he under the same condemnation?"--"No,"
says I, "Nicor is now by my means absolutely free, and no two greater
than he and I." I told him then my proceedings with him; he was glad of
it; for, he said, Nicor he believed was honest at bottom.
By this time up came the cannon; and truly had my countrymen but the
graundee to convey their cannon at so easy an expense from place to
place, the whole world would not stand before us. They brought me five
cannon, and three swivel guns, and a larger quantity of ammunition than
I had spoken for.
I introduced Nasgig to the king upon his return, as the person to whose
conduct the safe arrival of my cannon was owing. His majesty embracing
him, told him the service he had done him was so great in the affair
of Barbarsa, and his management of it so prudent, he should from
thenceforth take him into his peculiar confidence and esteem.
Nasgig thanked his majesty for his acceptance of that act of his duty,
and desired to know when he pleased the operations for the campaign
should begin.--"Ask my father," says the king; "do you conduct the war,
and let him conduct you."
Then Nasgig desired to know what number of troops would be requisite.
I asked him what number the enemy had; he said about thirty
thousand.--"Then," says I, "take you six only, besides the bearers of me
and the artillery; and pick me out fifty of the best men you have, as a
guard for my person, and send them to me."
I showed these men my cutlasses and pistols, and showed them the use
and management of them: "And," says I, "as our enemies fight with pikes,
keep you at a distance first, and when you would assault, toss by the
pike with your hand, and closing in, have at the graundee; and this
edge" (showing them the sharpness of it) "will strip it down from
shoulder to heel; you need strike but once for it, but be sure come near
enough; or," says I, "if you find it difficult to turn aside the pike,
give it one smart stroke with this; it will cut it in two, and then the
point being gone, it will be useless."
"These instructions," says I, "if rightly observed, will make us
conquerors."
The next thing was to settle the order of my march, which I did in the
following manner; and, taking leave of the king, I set out.
First, ten companies of one hundred men, including officers, with each a
gripsack, in ten double lines, fifty abreast.
Secondly, four hundred bearers of the cannon, with two hundred to the
right, the like to the left, as relays.
Thirdly, two hundred men with the ammunition, stores, hatchets, and
other implements.
Fourthly, fifty body-guards, in two lines.
Fifthly, myself, borne by eight, with twelve on the right, and as many
on the left, for relays.
Sixthly, two thousand men in columns, on each side the cannon and me,
fifty in a line, double lines.
Seventhly, one thousand men in the rear, fifty in a line, double lines.
I consulted with Nasgig how Harlokin's army lay, that I might avoid the
revolted towns, rather choosing to take them in my return; for my design
was to encounter Harlokin first, and I did not doubt, if I conquered
him, but the towns would surrender of course.
When we arrived within a small flight of his army, I caused a halt at
a proper place for my cannon, and having pitched them, which I did by
several flat stones, one on another to a proper elevation, I loaded
them, and also my small-arms, consisting of six muskets and three
brace of pistols, and placing my army, two thousand just behind me, two
thousand to my right, and the same number to my left, I gave a strict
command for none of them to stir forwards without orders, which Nasgig,
who stood just behind me, was to give. I then sent a defiance to
Harlokin by a gripsack, who sent me word he fought for a kingdom, and
would accept it; and, as I heard afterwards, he was glad I did, for
since the intelligence I had scattered in his army, they had in great
numbers deserted him, and he was afraid it would have proved general. I
then putting the end of a match into a pistol-pan with a little powder,
by flashing lighted it; and this I put under my chair, for I sat in
that, with my muskets three on each side, a pistol in my right hand, and
five more in my girdle. In this manner I waited Harlokin's coming, and
in about an hour we saw the van of his army, consisting of about five
thousand men, who flew in five layers, one over another. I had not
loaded my cannon with ball, but small-sized stones, about sixty in
each; and seeing the length of their line, I spread my cannons' mouths
somewhat wider than their breeches, and then taking my observation by
a bright star, for there was a clear dawn all round the horizon, I
observed, as I retired to my chair, how that star answered to the
elevation of my cannon; and when the foremost ranks, who, not seeing my
men stir, were approaching almost over me, to fall on them, and had come
to my pitch, I fired two pieces of my ordnance at once, and so mauled
them, that there dropped about ninety upon the first discharge, together
with their commander; the rest being in flight and so close together,
not being able to turn fast enough to fly, being stopped by those behind
them, not only hindered those behind from turning about, but clogged
up their own passage. Seeing them in such a prodigious cluster, I so
successfully fired two more pieces, that I brought down double the
number of the first shot; and then giving the word to fall on, my
cutlass-guard and the pikemen did prodigious execution. But fearing the
main body should advance before we had got in order again, I commanded
them to fall back to their former stations, and to let the remainder of
the enemy go off.
This did me more good in the event than if I had killed twice as many;
for they not only never returned themselves, but flying some to the
right, some to the left, and passing by the two wings of their own army,
consisting of six thousand men each, they severally reported that
they were all that was left of the whole van of the army; and that the
prediction would certainly be fulfilled, for that their companions had
died by fire and smoke. This report struck such terror into each wing,
that every one shifted for himself, and never appeared more.
The main battle, consisting of about ten thousand men, knowing nothing
of what had happened to the wings--for Harlokin had ordered the wings to
take a great compass round to enclose us--hearing we were but a handful,
advanced boldly; and as I had ordered my men not to mount too high, the
enemy sunk to their pitch. When they came near, I asked Nasgig who led
them; if it was Harlokin. He told me no, his general, but that he was
behind; and Nasgig begging me to let him try his skill with the general,
I consented, they not being yet come to the pitch of my cannon. Nasgig
immediately took the graundee, and advancing singly with one of my
cutlasses in his hand, challenged the general in single combat. He, like
a man of honour, accepting it, ordered a halt, and to it they went, each
emulous of glory, and of taking all the advantage he could, so that they
suddenly did not strike or push; but sometimes one, then the other
was uppermost, and whirling expeditiously round, met almost breast to
breast; when the general, who had not a pike, but a pikestaff headed
with a large stone, gave Nasgig such a stroke on his head that he
reeled, and sunk considerably, and I began to be in pain for him, the
general lowering after him. But Nasgig springing forward beneath him,
and rising light as air behind the general, had gained his height again
before the general could turn about to discern him, and then plunging
forward, and receiving a stroke across his left arm, at the same time
he gave the general such a blow near the outside of the shoulder as slit
the graundee almost down to his hip, and took away part of the flesh of
the left arm, upon which the general fell fluttering down in vast pain
very near me; but not before Nasgig, in his fall, descending, had taken
another severe cut at him.
[Illustration: 0192]
[Illustration: 0191]
Immediately upon this defeat Nasgig again took his place behind me, our
army shouting to the skies; but no sooner had the general dropped,
but on came Harlokin, with majesty and terror mixed in his looks, and
seeming to disdain the air he rode on, waved his men to the attack
with his hand. When he came near enough to hear me, I called him vile
traitor, to oppose the army of his lawful sovereign, telling him, if he
would submit, he should be received to mercy. "Base creeping insect,"
says Harlokin, "if thou hast aught to say to me worth hearing, meet me
in the air! This hand shall show thee soon who'll most want mercy; and
though I scorn to stoop to thee myself, this messenger shall satisfy the
world thou art an impostor, and send thee back lifeless to the fond
king that sent thee hither." With that he hurled a javelin pointed with
flint, sharp as a needle, at me; but I avoiding it, "This, then," says
I, "if words will not do, shall justify the truth of our prediction."
And then levelling a musket at him, I shot him through the very heart,
that he fell dead within twenty paces of me. But perceiving another
to take his room, notwithstanding the confusion my musket made amongst
them, I ran to my match, and giving fire to two more pieces of ordnance
at the same time, they fell so thick about me, that I had enough to
do to escape being crushed to death by them; and the living remainder
separating, fled quite away, and put an end to the war. I waited in the
field three days, to see if they would make head again; but they were so
far from it, that before I could return, as I found afterwards, most of
the revolting provinces had sent their deputies, who themselves carried
the first news of the defeat, to beg to be received into mercy; all of
whom were detained there till my return with Harlokin's head.
At my return to Brandleguarp I was met by the king, the colambs, and
almost the whole body of the people; every man, woman, and child, with
two sweecoe lights in their hands, which unusual sight in the air gave
me great alarm, till I inquired of Nasgig what it meant, who told me it
must certainly be a sweecoan, or he knew not what it was. I asking
again what he meant by that, he told me it was a particular method of
rejoicing he had heard of, but never seen; wherein, if the king goes
in triumph, all the people of Brandleguarp, from fifteen to sixty, are
obliged to attend him with sweecoes. He said it was reported amongst
them that in Begsurbeck's time there were two of them, but there had
been none since.
When we met them, I perceived they had opened into two lines or ranks
of a prodigious length; at the farther end of which was the king, with
innumerable lights about him, the whole looking like a prodigious avenue
or vista of lights, bounded at the farther end, where the king was, with
a pyramid light. This had the most solemn and magnificent effect on the
eye that anything of light could possibly have; but as we passed through
the ranks, each of the spectators having two lights, one was given to
each soldier of the whole army. And then to look backward, as well as
forward, the beauty of the scene was inexpressible. We marched all the
way amidst the shouts of people, and the sounds of the gripsacks, going
very slowly between the ranks; and at length arriving at the pyramid
where the king was, I heard abundance of sweet voices, chanting my
actions in triumphal songs; but I could take little notice of these,
or of my son with his flageolet amongst them, for the extravagant
appearance of the pyramid, which seemed to reach the very sky. For,
first, there was a long line of a full half-mile, which hovered at even
height with the two side ranks; in the centre of that, and over it,
was the king single; over him another line, shorter than the first,
and again over that, shorter and shorter lines; till, at a prodigious
height, it ended in one single light *These all hovering, kept their
stations; while the king darted a little space forward to meet me,
and congratulate my success; then turning and preceding me, the whole
pyramid turned, and marched before us, singing all the way to the city,
the pyramid changing several times into divers forms, as into squares,
half-moons, with the horns sometimes erect and again reversed, and
various other figures. And yet amongst this infinite number of globes
there was not the least glaring or offensive light, but only what was
agreeable to the people themselves. As the rear of the army entered the
lines, they closed upon it, and followed us into Brandleguarp. While we
passed the city to the palace, the whole body of people kept hovering
till the king and myself were alighted, and then every one alighted
where he best could. All the streets and avenues to the palace were
blocked up with people, crowding to receive the king's beneficence; for
he had proclaimed a feast and open housekeeping to the people for six
days. The king, the colambs, ragans, and great officers of state, with
myself, had a magnificent entertainment prepared us in Begsurbeck's
great room; and his majesty, after supper, being very impatient to know
how the battle went, I told him the only valorous exploit was performed
by my friend Nasgig, who opened the way to victory by the slaughter of
Harlokin's general. Nasgig then rose, desiring only that so much might
be attributed to him as fortune had accidentally thrown into his scale;
for it might have been equally his fate as the general's to have fallen.
"But except that skirmish," says he, "and some flying cuts at the van,
we have had no engagement at all, nor have we lost a single man; Peter
only sitting in his chair, and commanding victory. He spake aloud but
thrice, and whispered once to them, but so powerfully that, having
at the two first words laid above three hundred of the enemy at their
lengths, and brought Harlokin to his feet, with a whisper, at the third
word he concluded the war. The whole time, from the first sight of
the enemy to their total defeat, took not up more space than one might
fairly spend in traversing his majesty's garden. In short, sir," says
Nasgig, "your majesty needs no other defence against public or private
enemies, as I can see, than Peter; and my profession, whilst he is with
us, can be of little use to the State."
After these compliments from Nasgig, and separate ones from the king and
the rest, I told them it was the highest felicity to me to be made
an instrument by the great Collwar in freeing so mighty a kingdom and
considerable a people from the misery of a tyrannical power. "You live,"
says I, "so happily under the mild government of Georigetti, that it is
shocking but to think into what a distressed state you must have fallen
under the power of a usurper, who, claiming all as his own by way of
conquest, would have reduced you to a miserable servitude. But," says I,
"there is, and I am sorry to see it, still amongst you an evil that you
great ones feel not, and yet it cries for redress. Are we not all, from
the king to the meanest wretch amongst us, formed with the same members?
Do we not all breathe the same air? inhabit the same earth? Are we
not all subject to the same disorders? and do we not all feel pain and
oppression alike? Have we not all the same senses, the same faculties?
and, in short, are we not all equally creatures of, and servants to, the
same master, the great Collwar? Would not the king have been a slave but
for the accident of being begotten by one who was a king? and would
not the poorest creature amongst us have been the king had he been so
begotten? Did you great men, by any superior merit before your births,
procure a title to the high stations in which you are placed? No, you
did not. Therefore give me leave to tell you what I would have done. As
every man has equal right to the protection of Collwar, why, when you
have no enemy to distress you, will you distress one another? Consider,
you great ones, and act upon this disinterested principle; do to
another, what you, in his place, would have him do to you; dismiss your
slaves, let all men be what Collwar made them, free. But if this unequal
distinction amongst you, of man and man, is still retained, though you
are at present free from the late disaster, it shall be succeeded with
more, and heavier. And now, that you may know I would not have every
man a lord, nor every one a beggar, remember I would only have every
serving-man at liberty to choose his own master, and every master his
own man; for he that has property and benefits to bestow will never want
dependants, for the sake of those benefits to serve him, as he that has
them not must serve for the sake of obtaining them. But then let it be
done with free-will; he that then serves you will have an interest in
it, and do it, for his own sake, with a willing mind; and you, who are
served, will be tenderer and kinder to a good servant, as knowing by a
contrary usage you shall lose him. I desire this may now be declared to
be so, or your reasons, if any there are, against it."
One of the ragans said he thought I spoke what was very just, and would
be highly acceptable to Collwar.
Then two of the colambs rose to speak together, and after a short
compliment who should begin, they both declared they only arose to
testify their consents.
The king referring it to me, and the colambs consenting, I ordered
freedom to be proclaimed through the city; so that every one appeared at
their usual duties, to serve their own masters for a month, and then to
be at liberty to come to a fresh agreement with them, or who else they
pleased.
"This, sir," says I to the king, "will now be a day of joy indeed to
those poor hearts who would have been in no fear of losing before, let
who would have reigned; for can any man believe a slave cares who is
uppermost? he is but a slave still. But now," says I, "those who were
so before may by industry gain property; and then their own interest
engages them to defend the State.
"There is but one thing more I will trouble you with now--and that,"
says I to the ragans, "is, that we all meet at the mouch to-morrow, to
render Collwar thanks for the late, and implore future favour." And this
passed without any contradiction.
When we met, the poor ragans were at a great loss for want of their
image, not knowing what to do or say; for their practice had been to
prostrate themselves on the ground, making several odd gestures; but
whether they prayed, or only seemed to do so, no one knew.
While the people were gathering, I called to a ragan, seeing him out of
character. "Suppose," said I "(for I see you want your image), you and
your brethren had received a favour of the king, and you was deputed
by them to thank him, you would scarce be at a loss to express your
gratitude to him, and tell him how highly you all esteemed his benefits,
hoping you should retain a just sense of them, and behave yourselves as
dutiful subjects for the future, and then desire him to keep you still
in his protection. And this," says I, "as you believe in such a Being as
Collwar, who understands what you say, you may with equal courage do
to Him, keeping but your mind intent upon Him, as if you saw Him
present."--"Indeed," says he, "I believe you are right, we may so; but
it is a new thing, and you must excuse us if we do it not so well at
first."
I found I had a very apt scholar, for after he had begun, he made a
most extraordinary prayer in regular order, the people standing very
attentive. It was not long, but he justly observed the points I hinted
to him.
When he had done, another and another went on, till we had heard ten of
them, and in every one something new, and very _à propos;_ and several
of them afterwards confessed they never had the like satisfaction in
their lives, for they had new hearts and new thoughts, they said.
We spent the sixth-day feast in every gaiety imaginable, and especially
of dancing, of which they were very fond in their way; but it was not so
agreeable to me as my own country way, there being too much antic in it.
New deputies daily arrived from the revolted towns, and several little
republics, not claimed by Georigetti before, begged to be taken under
his protection; so that in one week the king saw himself not only
released from the dread of being driven from his throne, but courted
by some, submitted to by others, and almost at the summit of glory a
sovereign can attain to.
[Illustration: 5202]
[Illustration: 0203]