Office is vacant either by Death or Disgrace (which often happens) Five or Six of those Candidates petition the Emperor to entertain his Majesty and the Court with a Dance on the Rope, and whoever jumps the highest without falling succeeds in the Office. Very often the Chief Ministers themselves are commanded to shew their Skill, and to convince the Emperor that they have not lost their Faculty. Flimnap, the Treasurer, is allowed to cut a Caper on the strait Rope, at least an Inch higher than any other Lord in the whole Empire. I have seen him do the Summerset several times together upon a Trencher fixed on the Rope, which is no thicker than a common Pack-thread in England. My Friend Reldresal, Principal Secretary for private Affairs, is, in my opinion, if I am not partial, the second after the Treasurer; the rest of the Great Officers are much upon a Par.
These Diversions are often attended with fatal Accidents, whereof great numbers are on record. I myself have seen Two or Three Candidates break a Limb. But the Danger is much greater when the Ministers themselves are commanded to shew their Dexterity; for by contending to excel themselves and their Fellows, they strain so far, that there is hardly One of them who hath not received a Fall, and some of them Two or Three. I was assured that a Year or Two before my arrival, Flimnap would have infallibly broke his Neck, if One of the King's Cushions, that accidentally lay on the ground, had not weakened the force of his Fall.
There is likewise another Diversion which is only shewn before the Emperor and Empress, and First Minister, upon particular Occasions. The Emperor lays on a Table Three fine silken Threads of Six inches long. One is—Purple, Jhe other JYellow, and the Third White, These Threads are proposed as- Prizes for -those persons whom the Emperor hath a mind to distinguish by a peculiar mark of his Favour. The Ceremony is performed in his Majesty's great Chamber of State, where the Candidates are to undergo a Tryal of Dexterity very different from the former, and such as I have
