Page:History of Jack and the giants (2).pdf/19



Now amongſt the vaſt aſſembly there preſent, were five aged gentlemen, who were fathers to ſome of thoſe miſerable captives which Jack had lately ſet at liberty, who underſtanding that he was the perſon that performed thoſe great wonders, they immediately paid their venerable reſpects. After which their mirth increaſed, and the bowls went freely round to the proſperous ſucceſs of the victorious conqueror But in the midſt of all their mirth, a dark cloud appeared, which daunted all the hearts of this aſſembly.

Thus it was, a meſſenger brought the diſmal tidings of the approach of one Thunderdel, a huge Giant with two heads, who having heard of the death of his kinſmen, the above named Giants, was come from the northern pole in ſearch after Jack, to be revenged on him for their moſt miſerable downfal, and was within a mile of the knight's ſeat, the country people flying before him from their houſes and habitations like chaff before the wind. When they had related this, Jack not a whit daunted, ſaid, Let him come, I am prepared with a tool to pick his teeth, and you ladies and gentlemen, walk but forth into the garden, and you ſhall be the joyful ſpectators of this, monſtrous Giant's death and deſtruction. To which they all conſent, every one wiſhing him good fortune in that great and dangerous enterprize.

HE ſituation of the knight's houſe, take as follows: It was placed in the midſt of a ſmall iſland, encompaſſed round with a vaſt moat, thirty feet deep and twenty feet wide, over which lay a draw-bridge.