[5] Ostrich.
[CHAPTER XI.]
Of the Manner of making War in the Moon;
and of how the Moon is not the Moon,
nor the Earth the Earth.
One Morning early, having started out of my Sleep, I found her Taboring[1] upon the grates of my Cage: "Take good heart," said she to me, "yesterday in Council a War was resolved upon, against the King
[2] I hope that during the hurry of Preparations, whilst our Monarch and his Subjects are absent, I may find an occasion to make your escape." "How, a War," said I interrupting her, "have the Princes of this World, then, any quarrels amongst themselves, as those of ours have? Good now, let me know their way of Fighting."
"When the Arbitrators," replied she, "who are freely chosen by the two Parties, have appointed the time for raising Forces for their March, the number of Combatants, the day and place of Battle, and all with so great equality, that there is not one Man more in one Army, than in the other: All the maimed Soldiers on the one side, are lifted in one Company; and when they come to engage, the Mareshalls de Camp[3] take care to expose them to the maimed of the other side: The Giants are matched with Colosses, the Fencers with those that can handle their Weapons, the Valiant with the Stout, the Weak with the Infirm, the Sick with the Indisposed, the Sturdy with the Strong; and if any undertake to strike at another than the Enemy he is matched with, unless he can make it out that it was by mistake, he is Condemned for a Coward. When the Battle is over, they take an account of the Wounded, the Dead and the Prisoners, for Runaways they have none; and if the loss be equal on both sides, they draw Cuts, who shall be Proclaimed Victorious.
"But though a Kingdom hath defeated the Enemy in open War, yet there is hardly any thing got by it; for there are other smaller Armies of Learned and Witty Men, on whose Disputations the Triumph or Servitude of States wholly depends.