Chapter Thirty-SevenAs the Vox leaders listened to the translated account of the first coming of the Mazeesh, Swift noted that their reactions followed a pattern.
At first, every one of them seemed skeptical and impatient…but as the story progressed, they listened with increasing interest. When the account diverged from their accepted view of history, they grew irritated and muttered to one another; further on, when the tale implicated their species as the true authors of the incident's atrocities, annoyance turned to disbelief and outrage.
But after a while, as the extent of the Vox's crimes was recounted in gruesome detail, they settled into a pensive silence. Some of the ministers looked around at the floating Mazeesh with a combination of fear and regret; others hung their heads an
