Napoleon's apparent death

It was a few days after the pigs had celebrated the Battle of the Windmill and the subsequent drunken revelry that the pigs stumbled upon a case of whisky that had been overlooked in the cellars of the farmhouse. That night, the farmhouse rang with loud singing, and to the animals' astonishment, the strains of the forbidden Beasts of England mingled with the noise. At about half past nine, Napoleon was distinctly seen emerging from the back door, wearing Mr. Jones's old bowler hat, galloping rapidly around the yard before disappearing indoors. By morning, a deep silence hung over the farmhouse; not a pig stirred. When Squealer finally appeared at nearly nine o'clock, he walked slowly and dejectedly, his eyes dull and his tail limp, giving every appearance of being seriously ill.

Squealer called the animals together and delivered a terrible piece of news: Comrade Napoleon was dying. A cry of lamentation went up; straw was laid outside the doors of the farmhouse, and the animals walked on tiptoe, tears in their eyes, asking each other what they would do if their Leader were taken. A rumour spread that Snowball had poisoned Napoleon's food. At eleven o'clock, Squealer emerged again to announce a solemn decree, pronounced as Napoleon's last act upon earth: the drinking of alcohol was to be punished by death. The animals, already grieving, accepted this decree without question.

By that evening, however, Napoleon appeared somewhat better, and the following morning Squealer reported that he was well on the way to recovery. By the next day, Napoleon was back at work. It was soon learned that he had instructed Mr. Whymper to purchase booklets on brewing and distilling in Willingdon. A week later, Napoleon gave orders that the small paddock beyond the orchard, which had been intended as a retirement pasture for old animals, was to be ploughed up and sown with barley. The episode, which had appeared to be a near-tragedy, was revealed as a cynical performance: Napoleon had used the threat of his own death to consolidate authority, to impose a prohibition on alcohol that he himself had no intention of obeying, and from which he would soon profit. The entire incident was a calculated piece of theatre, exploiting the cult of personality that had long surrounded Napoleon, in which his every word was treated as sacred and his health was equated with the fate of the farm.