372 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



pounds in about as many hours ; I was at it, one 

 way or another, from half-past four one afternoon 

 till six next morning. I was at Birmingham, and 

 Captain Eendall he wanted me to ride 12st. on his 

 grey horse at Alcester next day ; and he had to be 

 there at eight o' clock to enter him. So he would 

 have me go into a vapour bath. I went in usual 

 time, twenty minutes, and a man comes " How do 

 you feel ?" " I feel very well/' I says ; (f I'll be in 

 a bit longer." Then he comes back with a tray, and 

 he begins " Gentlemen sometimes has coffee when 

 they're in the bath." So I puts my head out of the 

 little hole (I was all tied in, you see), and I says, 

 " Hang your coffee ! I'm hot enough, outside and in 

 take it away/ 5 In five minutes he comes again, 

 and I says, " Pm doing uncommon nicely, just you 

 wait" ; it was pouring off me then ! Well, when that 

 five minutes was over, he didn't ask me what I'd do, 

 but he whips .the curtains away, wraps me in a blanket, 

 and had me off across the passage to another room, 

 under a regular pile of blankets, for half-an-hour. My 

 heart, how it did bump to be sure ! I'd just been and 

 overdone it. Then the Captain, he'd been and got 

 the physic, and a precious stiff dose they'd mixed for 

 me.! They dressed me, and the Captain and I went 

 off in a chaise. When I was two miles off Alcester 

 I got out and walked, and the Captain he went on to 

 get me a bedroom ready. When I got to the inn, 

 Mason and Becher and Powell were all there in the 

 coffee-room : they'd come down to ride. When I 

 went in, they says, " How are you, old cock !" and 

 then the Captain, he comes in with his " Well, Dick, 

 how are you after your boiling ?" At six next morn- 

 ing he knocks at my bedroom, and up I gets. I went 

 into a grocer's shop, and asked them to weigh me. 

 I said " Put in eleven stone." The Captain, he 

 says, " Nonsense, Dick ; you'll be six pounds more 

 than that." I said, ' ' I know I'm right :" and it's 



