roleplaying:munchausen:chapter_vi
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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' | ||
+ | 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' | ||
+ | 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' | ||
+ | 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' | ||
+ | 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; | ||
+ | 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' | ||
+ | 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' | ||
+ | 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, | ||
+ | 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--" | ||
+ | March," | ||
+ | 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]] |
roleplaying/munchausen/chapter_vi.txt · Last modified: 2005/11/22 17:59 by 127.0.0.1