THE SLAVE PUGILIST. 133 



the clink-clank of the hammer and anvil, awoke her. Hannibal be- 

 came her journeyman he had never been so happy in his life the 

 villagers idolized him for his kind disposition, his skill as a smith, 

 and his prodigious strength. At quoits he was pre-eminent no man 

 but the tailor's slim son could give him a backfall at wrestling. His 

 odd antics, after his day's work was done, rendered him most beloved of 

 boys, and more than one strapping farmer's daughter seemed to enter- 

 tain no repugnance to his colour. Caps, it is said, were about to be 

 clawed on Hannibal's account ; so that, to keep peace and quietness 

 in the parish, his mistress, before she had " gone her year," thought 

 fit to marry him. 



At the age of thirteen I became Hannibal Straw's apprentice my 

 father was a-fermer in the neighbourhood he had eight children, all 

 lads, of whom I was the eldest. Never had boy better master than was 

 Hannibal Straw, or sweeter mistress than the widow of bandy-legged 

 Jehoiakim Batterbee. I have since seen the daughters of the great 

 those who have been accounted the loveliest of their generation but 

 they were plain, compared with Mrs. Straw. Black Hannibal's wife, 

 I should decidedly say, was almost the finest woman in all England, 

 and yet I have often seen her pointing nails at the vice ; and it was 

 traditionary, that before she had emerged from her teens she had 

 often wielded the big hammer over a red-hot bar in front of knee- 

 broken. Batterbee, her bed-ridden papa's apprentice. Be this as it 

 may, she was a capital wife to Hannibal, and a most motherly mistress 

 to me : both of us loved her idolized her particularly Hannibal, 

 although she never became a mother by him. But he doated on Bat- 

 terbee's boys, as if they had been his own, and so did I. 



Three years of my apprenticeship had glode away like a pleasant 

 dream, when, one night, Mr. Straw returned, exceedingly late, from 

 the neighbouring market town, where he had been on business, in a 

 frightful plight ! One of his eyes was closed, the opposite cheek was 

 gashed he had lost three of his beautiful front teeth the orifice of 

 his left ear was clotted with blood. Mrs. Straw had gone to bed I 

 was sitting up for him, roasting onions by the forge-fire. He walked 

 in -heaven knows where he had left his horse with his hands clasped 

 against his chin, and looking as though his soul had been condemned 

 to everlasting perdition. He sat down on the anvil, placed his heels 

 on the block, and thus brought his knees up towards his face, which 

 he plunged into his palms with such an air of utter misery, as made 

 me shed a torrent of tears. I offered to call his wife, but he would not 

 permit me. With great pains I extracted a confession from him. He 

 had accidentally fallen in with two of his importers, who recognized 

 him, and affecting to forget what had passed, plied him with liquor in 

 honour of their meeting, until he became intoxicated: then shifting 

 their ground, they bitterly upbraided him for his conduct, reproached 

 him with cowardice, and when sure of their game, on account of his 

 inebriety, offered to back a man two-thirds of his weight against him, 

 for all the money which he had in his pocket. This was considerable 

 for he had been receiving one or two comparatively heavy payments. 

 Irritated by their taunts, he closed with them at once. A sturdy 

 minion of his importers' was speedily introduced : with him Hannibal 



