Beelzebub at their head; he set spurs to Sphinx, and at the same time
cut and cracked away as hard as he could, holding in the reins with all
his might, striving to make the creature plunge and show some uncommon
diversion. But sulky and ill-tempered was Sphinx at the time: she
plunged indeed--such a devil of a plunge, that she dashed him in one
jerk over her head, and he fell precipitately into the water before her.
It was in the Bay of Biscay, all the world knows a very boisterous sea,
and Sphinx, fearing he would be drowned, never turned to the left or
the right out of her way, but advancing furious, just stooped her head
a little, and supped the poor count off the water, into her mouth,
together with the quantity of two or three tuns of water, which she
must have taken in along with him, but which were, to such an enormous
creature as Sphinx, nothing more than a spoonful would be to any of you
or me. She swallowed him, but when she had got him in her stomach, his
long spurs so scratched and tickled her, that they produced the effect
of an emetic. No sooner was he in, but out he was squirted with the
most horrible impetuosity, like a ball or a shell from the calibre of
a mortar. Sphinx was at this time quite sea-sick, and the unfortunate
count was driven forth like a sky-rocket, and landed upon the peak of
Teneriffe, plunged over head and ears in the snow--_requiescat in pace!_

I perceived all this mischief from my seat in the ark, but was in such a
convulsion of laughter that I could not utter an intelligible word. And
now Sphinx, deprived of her postillion, went on in a zigzag direction,
and gambolled away after a most dreadful manner. And thus had everything
gone to wreck, had I not given instant orders to Gog and Magog to sally
forth. They plunged into the water, and swimming on each side, got at
length right before the animal, and then seized the reins. Thus they
continued swimming on each side, like tritons, holding the muzzle
of Sphinx, while I, sallying forth astride upon the creature's back,