MISADVENTURES OF A LOVER. 



vant were driving out of town. When we proceeded two miles, we 

 came in sight of K Abbey, an old venerable ruin. To have gone 

 to it by the usual circuitous route would have been a distance of three 

 miles : by crossing one or two intervening fields of grass, the dis- 

 tance would not have been a mile and a half. I have always hated 

 round-about roads. I therefore decided in favour of driving through 

 the fields. We had not proceeded above a quarter of a mile when, 

 owing I suppose to too rapid and careless driving, we upset the gi<r 

 by coming in contact with a fragment of an old broken turf dyke. 

 The contents of course were "spilled." The contusion, in so far as I 

 was concerned, was dreadful. The shock of a Lisbon earthquake 

 could scarcely have been greater. For half an hour afterwards I lay 

 horizontally on the ground, quite insensible. On partially recover- 

 ing my consciousness, I found the gig lying in myriads of pieces all 

 around me. A more striking picture of destruction I have never 

 witnessed. No horse or servant was to be seen. Let the reader only 

 judge of my feelings, when, in addition to my broken bones, a sense 

 of what I had done broke in on my mind. My servant the rogue 

 was little hurt my servant, I afterwards learned, took one direction, 

 and the horse another. I was left " alone in my glory" such as it 

 was to live or die, just as "sovereign Fate" was pleased to ordain. 

 The four-legged animal was so much frightened that he galloped all 

 the way at his utmost speed back to the inn ; the biped blockhead, the 

 two-legged animal, instead of waiting, as any man with an atom of 

 " rumgumption" in him would have done, to put the best possible 

 face on the disaster, ran home without ever halting, and without ut- 

 tering a syllable to human being touching what had occurred. The 

 dunce's notion doubtless was, that possibly nobody might ever 

 learn that he had fig-ured in the foolish affair which had led to the 

 awkward and tragical catastrophe. 



The alarm which the horse, half-harnessed and '* raised" as he was, 



created among the inhabitants of F , as he "galloped up to the 



hotel stables, fairly defies description. In less than ten minutes the 

 idea spread through the whole town that some accident it might be 

 a fatal one had happened to Lord A . A shoal of the good people 

 set out instantly in quest of me. I was found on the spot alluded to, 

 able to converse a little, but altogether incapable of walking. An ex- 

 press a two-legged one, because no other was to be had was sent to 

 the inn, to procure a carriage to carry home the young nobleman. Or- 

 ders were at the same time given to get a doctor with all possible 

 haste. The solicitude as to the extent of the damage done to my 

 person evinced by all present was extreme ; they absolutely vied 

 with each other in showing attention to me. The carriage was not 

 long in arriving. I was put into it, and conducted to the hotel, on 

 my arrival at which I had a world of kind offices shown me. There 



was only one doctor who then practised in the town of F , and 



he was at that time unfortunately twenty miles from home on a pro- 

 fessional visit. What was to be done ? Without my knowledge, an 



express was sent to E , the town to which I belonged, demanding 



the immediate attention, on Lord A , of two medical practition- 

 ers. In an incredibly short space they were in my apartment. I 



