IN SEARCH OF A HORSE. 221 



assured of reseating himself! I foresaw tlie catas- 

 trophe. No sooner had I given him his cane than to 

 show his courage, he applied it to his mare, and 

 away she went like a bullet. To give chase to a 

 runaway horse, is the unkindest service in the world. 

 I followed at my leisure ; the youth was going to a 

 dinner party, and I thought the worst that would 

 happen, would be his arriving in time to cook the 

 dinner. 



At Islington, an old woman was in modern phrase- 

 ology, "flaring up" like a fury: an orange-barrow 

 overturned, and oranges scattered to the winds, be- 

 spoke the nature of her provocation : she had escap- 

 ed by miracle. A hundred yards farther a coster- 

 monger's cart showed symptoms of unwonted distress 

 — cabbages, carrots, potatoes, strewed the ground, 

 while the owner vented his indignant wrath in cor- 

 dially wishing my unlucky friend might finish his 

 career in the shades below. Misfortunes thickened 

 as I traced his steps ; a mob at Battle-bridge sur- 

 rounded the toll-collector : a good-natured attempt to 

 close the gate had exposed his limbs to serious risk, 

 though it had not saved his penny ; the man was quit 

 for a bloody nose, and a fisherwoman for the trouble 



