THE SLAVE PUGILIST. 131 



him, he began to put out his strength, and rapidly shook his importers 

 off, as a mad bull would so many puppy dogs. His blood being up, 

 he laid about him with such vigour, that it was not until he had 

 given each of the most conspicuous, especially the skipper, a frightful 

 threshing, that he recollected the purpose for which he had got on his 

 legs namely, effecting an escape. 



He dashed into the street, and ran on he knew not whither he 

 had never been suffered to go out alone in fact, since his arrival in 

 England, he had been held in more complete bondage than when a 

 positive slave. A consciousness of this fact had faintly glimmered 

 upon him more than once, and for the last few days he had been by 

 no means comfortable. 



It was night, but not so late but that the streets were still thronged, 

 and Hannibal, when he had become tolerably calm, considered him- 

 self fortunate in having reached the outskirts of the city ; but what 

 course could he pursue ? where was he to go ? what could he do ? 

 There was no bush, as he had heard, to which he could retreat : he 

 was destitute of money he had no friends his enemies were in 

 his rear, perhaps on his track and this thought induced him to 

 proceed with all possible speed in as direct a line as the nature of the 

 country would permit. At daybreak he found himself on an exten- 

 sive heath or down : patches of green fern, drooping with dew, were 

 scattered about him ; into the nearest of these he threw himself, 

 fatigued and disconsolate. By so doing he disturbed a lark, which 

 fluttered up in a direct line above him singing cheerily ; the lambs on 

 a distant hill awoke and began to gambol ; the last star in the centre 

 of the heavens was about to be outshone by the fiery dawn ; the small 

 birds were gladly twittering on the thorns ; a general jubilee seemed 

 about to commence ; and Hannibal, huge Hannibal Straw, who had 

 been brought over to fight the champion, began to blubber like a boy 

 deprived of his bread and butter. 



He bitterly lamented that he had ceased to be the property of his 

 old owner, the free man of colour, and literally cried himself to sleep. 

 When he awoke, the dew had gone, the lark was silent, a cow was 

 standing knee-deep in a neighbouring pond, and no sound was heard 

 save the drone of a bee, and the busy buzz of a multitude of flies. 

 It was noon, but Hannibal shivered. He was hungry too. For an 

 instant he thought of returning to his importers ; but to speak the 

 truth he was afraid. After having sauntered about the common for 

 some time, without aim or object, he turned into a path, which, passing 

 through a thick wood, suddenly emerged in a straggling sequestered 

 village. On getting into the road Hannibal picked up a horseshoe ; 

 he was a blacksmith by trade, and the incident afforded him a slight 

 sensation of joy, which even the melancholy tolling of a bell from the 

 village church could not subdue. An old gander, without geese, 

 hissed at him from a respectful distance; an idiot boy ceased to throw 

 pebbles at the sun as he passed, and with a grin asked him for a suit 

 of mourning : besides these, Hannibal saw no living thing. The 

 houses, the farm yards, seemed to be desolate. At length, in a nook, 

 on the right of the main road oh ! joyful spectacle ! he beheld a 

 smith's shop, and reached it with a run. The anvil was cold ; the fire 



