WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 257 



^evening than he proceeded at once to Kenwyn's to claim the 

 horse, ' Lunatique/ at the price agreed upon between them ; and 

 although the butcher was loth enough to part with so good a slave 

 -at so low a figure, his vice as a saddle-horse being heretofore 

 deemed incurable, the threat of a proces-verbal so alarmed him 

 .that he reluctantly consented to accept Johnson's bill and give 

 up the horse. But just as the latter was about to ride away in 

 triumph, meaning to send off the horse next morning to Morlaix, 

 for shipment to England, the officers pounced upon him, and, 

 securing his wrists in steel manacles, carried him off to Port 

 Rieux, thence to be conveyed to Jersey by the first vessel leaving 

 the port for that island. The charge against him is that of arson, 

 with intent to defraud an influential London fire-insurance society. 

 It appears he had insured his premises and stock-in-trade for 

 a large sum with that and other companies, and that, on three 

 different occasions, fire had broken out most unaccountably in 

 the lofts, consuming, as Johnson swore, a large quantity of hay 

 and corn, for which he was twice paid in full by the insurance 

 companies. Suspicion, however, fell upon him as the perpetrator; 

 and his neighbours, after giving him the nickname of Guy Fawkes, 

 did not scruple to warn the fire-office agents that foul play had 

 been practised on them upon each occasion. So a vigilant eye was 

 kept upon him on every side, even by his own stablemen ; and 

 when, for the third time, a fire was discovered in a loft, which no 

 one but himself had entered for four-and-twenty-hours previously, 

 a stringent inquiry was at once instituted by the chief insurance 

 company j and, bit by bit, evidence was at length elicited which 

 went to prove, beyond all reasonable doubt, that the premises 

 had been fired by Johnson's own hand. In the meantime, while 

 these preliminaries were being sifted, Johnson, not liking the turn 

 affairs were taking, and probably cowed by his own conscience, 

 quitted the island privately by night, taking passage in a fishing 

 craft, which for a small sum landed him at Treguier, on our own- 



