A VOVAGE, TO LILLIPUT. 83

catry it back: that he had good reasons to think you
were a Big-Endian in your heart, and as treason begins
in the heart before it appears in overt acts, so he
accused you as a traitor on that account and, therefore,
insisted you should be put to death. .

The Treasurer was of the same opinion ; he showed
to what straits his Majesty’s revenue was reduced by
the charge of maintaining you, which would soon grow
insupportable : that the Secretary’s expedient of putting
out your eyes was so far from being a remedy against
this evil it would probably increase it, as it is manifest
from the common practice of blinding some kind of fowl,
after which they fed the faster and grew sooner fat:
that his sacred Majesty, and the Council, who are your
judges, were in their own consciences fully convinced of
your guilt, which was a sufficient argument to condemn
you to death without the formal proofs required by the
strict letter of the law.

But his imperial Majesty fully determined against
capital punishment was graciously pleased to say that
since the Council thought the loss of your eyes too easy
a censure some other may be inflicted hereafter. And
your friend the Secretary humbly desiring to be heard’
again, in answer to what the Treasurer had objected
concerning the great charge his Majesty was at in
maintaining you, said that his excellency, who had the
sole disposal of the Emperor’s revenue, might easily
provide against that evil by gradually lessening your
establishment ; by which, for want of sufficient food,
you would grow weak and faint and lose your appetite,