OF FARRiERY. 



395 



a^eed to between any party or parties in fu- 

 ture, shall be recoverable by law." 



But there was another event, one of the 

 blackest acts of cruelty which could well be 

 conceived, and if not well authenticated, could 

 scarcely be believed. The stratagem of the 

 private trial met with its deserts. The charge 

 of this wicked and inhuman act against Framp- 

 ton rests on the authority of Dr. tJawkes- 

 worth, and which was published in the thirty- 

 seventh number of the " Adventurer." Tiie 

 following are the words supposed to be spoken 

 by the unfoitunate Horse in the Elysium of 

 beasts and birds : — 



" It is true (replied the steed,) I was a fa- 

 vourite ; but what avails it to be a favourite 

 of caprice, avarice, and barbarity ? My ty- 

 rant was a wretch, who had gained a con- 

 siderable fortune by play, particularly by 

 racin'g. I had won him many large sums ; 

 but being at length excepted out of every 

 match, as having no equal, he regarded even 

 my excellence with malignity, when it was no 

 longer subservient to his interest. Yet I still 

 lived in ease and plenty ; and, as he was able 

 to sell even my pleasures, though my labour 

 was become useless, I had a seraglio, in which 

 there was a perpetual succession of new beau- 

 ties. At last, however, another competitor 

 appeared : I enjoyed a new triumph by anti- 

 cipation ; I rushed into the field panting for 

 the conquest, and the first heat put my master 

 in possession of the stakes, which amounted to 

 ten thousand pounds ! 



" The proprietor of the mare that I had 

 distanced, notwithstanding the disgrace, de- 

 clared, with great zeal, that she should run 

 next day against any gelding in the world for 

 double that sum. My master immediately 

 accepted the challenge, and told him that he 



would the next day produce a gelding that 

 should beat her, 



" But what was my astonishment and in- 

 dignation when I discovered that he, most 

 cruelly and fraudulently, intended to qualify 

 me for this match upon the spot, and to sacri- 

 fice my life at the very moment in which 

 every nerve should be strained in his service ! 



" As I knew it would be in vain to resist, I 

 suffered myself to be bound : the operation 

 was performed, and I was instantly mounted 

 and spurred to the goal. Injured as I was, 

 the love of glory was still superior to the de- 

 sire of revenge ; I determined to die, as I had 

 lived, without an equal ; and having again 

 won the race, I sunk at the post in an agony, 

 which soon put an end to my life ! 



" When I had heard this horrid narrative 

 (continues Dr. Ilawkesworth,) which indeed 

 / remembered to be true, I turned about ia 

 honest confusion, and blushed that I was a 

 man!" 



We know it has been contended, however, 

 by some friends to the memory of Mr. Framp- 

 ton, that no such evefll as that just described 

 ever occurred ; still it should be recollected 

 that assertions are easily made ; and that, in 

 such a case as the present, they can have but 

 little weight, unaccompanied by any species of 

 collateral proof, particularly when brought in 

 contact with the authority of Dr. Ilawkes- 

 worth, who positively states the fact in most 

 explicit terms. 



THE HORSE AT A SHIPWRECK. 



"I should have found it difl^cult to oive 

 credit," says Mr. De Pages, (from whose 

 travels round the world this fact is related,) 

 " had it not happened at this place (the Cape 

 of Good Hope) the evening before my arrival: 



