CHAPTER NINE

Accused!

The queen had many friends in important positions. She was able to convince these friends to speak badly about me to the king. The king was already angry with me because I had refused to help him control the Blefuscudian people. For many weeks I was not asked to attend the king's meetings, and I began to be afraid that the king and my enemies might be planning to hurt me.

Luckily for me, I still had one friend in the palace. Reldresal was my loyal friend, and he felt that I had done great things for Lilliput and its people. He wanted to protect me from anything that Skyresh Bolgolam or my other enemies might do. One night Reldresal came to see me in secret. "Man-mountain, you must listen to me carefully," he said, "In the past few weeks, the king has had secret meetings with his officers about what should be done with you. Finally, two days ago, the king decided to accuse you of treason!"

"How can this be? I haven't done anything wrong!" I cried.

"Many of your enemies have found reasons to be angry with you. The king is angry because he wants to control Blefuscu and you would not help him by capturing all their ships. Skyresh Bolgolam is terribly jealous of you, because he worked his whole life to capture the Blefuscudians' ships for the king, but he always failed. Then you came and did it in one day. Finally, Flimnap, who controls Lilliput's money, feels that it is too expensive to keep feeding you."

I wanted to defend myself. "Reldresal, as long as I have been on Lilliput, I have only done what the king ordered me to do. I know I did not help the king capture Blefuscu, but that is because I think that it would be wrong for me to kill people. It seems to me that the king liked me, as long as I did what he wanted. But when I did not agree with him, he decided I was a traitor, and believed all the lies my enemies told him! I know that my food and drink are expensive, but it was the king who decided to imprison me here in the first place. So Flimnap the treasurer should be angry with him! Now, please tell me clearly, what sort of crimes am I accused of?"

"Man-mountain, you do not have to defend yourself to me. I agree that you have done nothing wrong," Reldresal said calmly. "Now, I have a list of the accusations here. I will read them to you," said Reldresal. Then he began to read:

Accusation One: The law of Lilliput is that no one may urinate near the palace, and those that do will be guilty of treason. The Man-mountain urinated on the palace on purpose, even though he knew this was wrong.

Accusation Two: After capturing many of the Blefuscudian ships, the Man-mountain would not follow the orders of the great and wonderful king of Lilliput. He did not capture the rest of the ships, he did not kill the armies of Blefuscu, and he did not go and kill the people who break their eggs on the large end, as the king wanted.

Accusation Three: The Man-mountain treated the officers of Blefuscu very kindly, even though the people of Blefuscu were our enemies at that time. If the Man-mountain is truly loyal to Lilliput, he would not treat Blefuscudians with kindness, as they are terrible people who break their eggs on the big end.

Accusation Four: The Man-mountain plans to visit Blefuscu and has not received a written letter of permission from our king.

No true and loyal friend of our king would do any of these terrible things that the Man-mountain has done.

I was angrier than ever now. "These accusations are ridiculous," I said, "First of all, the king decided to forgive me when I urinated on the palace. I saved his queen's life when I did that! Why is he changing his mind now?"

"Don't you understand, Man-mountain? The king and your enemies want you to be guilty, so they have to invent things," said Reldresal.

The king's accusations were very unfair, and also silly. I knew that Reldresal agreed with me, but it seemed that there was no way we could change the king's mind. "So what will the king do with me? What is the punishment for these crimes?" I asked.

Reldresal looked very serious. "Man-mountain, the usual punishment for these crimes is death," he said.

I thought about this for a moment. "And how does the king plan to kill me?" I asked.

"Luckily, the king does not want to kill you. He is still angry with you, but he knows that you have also helped our country. However, Skyresh Bolgolam wants you to die. He suggested that your house be set on fire, with you inside it. Twenty thousand soldiers should wait outside with poisoned arrows to shoot, in case you try to escape the house," said Reldresal, "However, the king did not agree with this plan."

"Well, it's good that the king doesn't want to kill me, at least. I knew he would remember my good service to him someday," I said.

Reldresal sighed. "I'm afraid that is not true, my friend," he said, "Instead of killing you, the king suggests that your eyes should be poked out as a punishment. Then he can still put your strong body to work."

"Poke my eyes out?" I shouted, shocked and angry, "How could anyone be so cruel?"

"Yes, it is a cruel idea. But Flimnap did not think this was a good idea. He said if your eyes were poked out, the people would still have to feed you every day. If you were working hard for the country, you might eat even more, and Flimnap doesn't want to spend the money to feed you," Reldresal explained.

"So what did the king finally decide?" I asked.

"The king has finally decided that first your eyes will be poked out. Then your food will be reduced every day until you are too weak to fight back. Then you will be poisoned. Once you die, he plans to have ten thousand men cut up your body and throw all the pieces into the sea. However, they will leave your bones on the land so that all the people of Lilliput will know the power of our great king."

"When do they plan to do all of these things to me? Will I have a trial?" I asked.

"Yes," said Reldresal, "Your trial is in three days, but since the king is also going to be the judge, you will certainly be found guilty!"

I thought about everything I had heard, then thanked Reldresal and told him to go back to the palace. There was no way I would let the selfish king and his friends hurt me. "I've got to leave Lilliput at once," I said quietly to myself.

(end of section)