Of their smaller fowl, I could take up twenty or thirty at the end of my knife.
One day his imperial majesty, being informed of my way of living, desired that himself and his royal consort, with the young princes of the blood of both sexes, might have the happiness, as he was pleased to call it, of dining with me.

They came accordingly, and I placed them in chairs of state upon my table, just over against me, with their guards about them.

Flimnap, the lord high treasurer, attended there likewise, with his white staff; and I observed he often looked on me with a sour countenance, which I would not seem to regard, but eat more than usual, in honor to my dear country, as well as to fill the court with admiration.

I have some private reasons to believe that this visit from his majesty gave Flimnap an opportunity of doing me ill offices to his master.

That minister had always been my secret enemy, though he outwardly caressed me more than was usual to the moroseness of his nature.