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+====== TRAVELS OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN ======
+===== CHAPTER VI =====
+//The Baron is made a prisoner of war, and sold for a slave--Keeps
+  the Sultan's bees, which are attacked by two bears--Loses one of
+  his bees; a silver hatchet, which he throws at the bears, rebounds
+  and flies up to the moon; brings it back by an ingenious
+  invention; falls to the earth on his return, and helps himself out
+  of a pit--Extricates himself from a carriage which meets his in a
+  narrow road, in a manner never before attempted nor practised
+  since--The wonderful effects of the frost upon his servant's
+  French horn.//
+I was not always successful. I had the misfortune to be overpowered by
+numbers, to be made prisoner of war; and, what is worse, but always
+usual among the Turks, to be sold for a slave. [The Baron was
+afterwards in great favour with the Grand Seignior, as will appear
+hereafter.] In that state of humiliation my daily task was not very
+hard and laborious, but rather singular and irksome. It was to drive
+the Sultan's bees every morning to their pasture-grounds, to attend
+them all the day long, and against night to drive them back to their
+hives. One evening I missed a bee, and soon observed that two bears
+had fallen upon her to tear her to pieces for the honey she carried. I
+had nothing like an offensive weapon in my hands but the silver
+hatchet, which is the badge of the Sultan's gardeners and farmers. I
+threw it at the robbers, with an intention to frighten them away, and
+set the poor bee at liberty; but, by an unlucky turn of my arm, it
+flew upwards, and continued rising till it reached the moon. How
+should I recover it? how fetch it down again? I recollected that
+Turkey-beans grow very quick, and run up to an astonishing height. I
+planted one immediately; it grew, and actually fastened itself to one
+of the moon's horns. I had no more to do now but to climb up by it
+into the moon, where I safely arrived, and had a troublesome piece of
+business before I could find my silver hatchet, in a place where
+everything has the brightness of silver; at last, however, I found it
+in a heap of chaff and chopped straw. I was now for returning: but,
+alas! the heat of the sun had dried up my bean; it was totally useless
+for my descent: so I fell to work, and twisted me a rope of that
+chopped straw, as long and as well as I could make it. This I fastened
+to one of the moon's horns, and slid down to the end of it. Here I
+held myself fast with the left hand, and with the hatchet in my right,
+I cut the long, now useless end of the upper part, which, when tied to
+the lower end, brought me a good deal lower: this repeated splicing
+and tying of the rope did not improve its quality, or bring me down to
+the Sultan's farm. I was four or five miles from the earth at least
+when it broke; I fell to the ground with such amazing violence, that I
+found myself stunned, and in a hole nine fathoms deep at least, made
+by the weight of my body falling from so great a height: I recovered,
+but knew not how to get out again; however, I dug slopes or steps with
+my finger-nails [the Baron's nails were then of forty years' growth],
+and easily accomplished it.
+Peace was soon after concluded with the Turks, and gaining my liberty,
+I left St. Petersburg at the time of that singular revolution, when
+the emperor in his cradle, his mother, the Duke of Brunswick, her
+father, Field-Marshal Munich, and many others were sent to Siberia.
+The winter was then so uncommonly severe all over Europe, that ever
+since the sun seems to be frost-bitten. At my return to this place, I
+felt on the road greater inconveniences than those I had experienced
+on my setting out.
+I travelled post, and finding myself in a narrow lane, bid the
+postillion give a signal with his horn, that other travellers might
+not meet us in the narrow passage. He blew with all his might; but his
+endeavours were in vain, he could not make the horn sound, which was
+unaccountable, and rather unfortunate, for soon after we found
+ourselves in the presence of another coach coming the other way: there
+was no proceeding; however, I got out of my carriage, and being pretty
+strong, placed it, wheels and all, upon my head: I then jumped over a
+hedge about nine feet high (which, considering the weight of the
+coach, was rather difficult) into a field, and came out again by
+another jump into the road beyond the other carriage: I then went back
+for the horses, and placing one upon my head, and the other under my
+left arm, by the same means brought them to my coach, put to, and
+proceeded to an inn at the end of our stage. I should have told you
+that the horse under my arm was very spirited, and not above four
+years old; in making my second spring over the hedge, he expressed
+great dislike to that violent kind of motion by kicking and snorting;
+however, I confined his hind legs by putting them into my coat-pocket.
+After we arrived at the inn my postillion and I refreshed ourselves:
+he hung his horn on a peg near the kitchen fire; I sat on the other
+side.
+Suddenly we heard a //tereng! tereng! teng! teng!// We looked round, and
+now found the reason why the postillion had not been able to sound his
+horn; his tunes were frozen up in the horn, and came out now by
+thawing, plain enough, and much to the credit of the driver; so that
+the honest fellow entertained us for some time with a variety of
+tunes, without putting his mouth to the horn--"The King of Prussia's
+March," "Over the Hill and over the Dale," with many other favourite
+tunes; at length the thawing entertainment concluded, as I shall this
+short account of my Russian travels.
+//Some travellers are apt to advance more than is perhaps strictly
+true; if any of the company entertain a doubt of my veracity, I shall
+only say to such, I pity their want of faith, and must request they
+will take leave before I begin the second part of my adventures, which
+are as strictly founded in fact as those I have already related.//
+----
+Go to [[CHAPTER VII]]