SHIRAZ TO BTTSHIRE. 53 



Avart frame of my companion the Swede, and my 

 horse's ears three objects upon which, alternately, 

 I had in vain tried to rivet my attention appeared 

 to spin round in mazy confusion, and then dissolve 

 into mist. My eyes shut with a sudden snap, and 

 all senses, save the one of remaining in my saddle, 

 deserted me How far I rode thus oblivious to 

 everything around me, I know not ; but this I do 

 know, that when fate decreed I was to be awoke, it 

 was to be done rather rudely. There was a crash a 

 noise much resembling that which arises upon a heavy 

 weight charging a "bullfinch"; something hit me a 

 violent blow on the nose, which made me reel in my 

 saddle, and eventually laid me backward, with an 

 irresistible thrust, with my head over my horse's tail. 

 My hat was knocked off ; and there was a feeling as 

 if all my hair had been dragged out by the roots and 

 my face knocked into a jelly. Literally speaking, I 

 was painfully alive to my situation. AVheii I did 

 venture to take a look, I found that my horse, prob- 

 ably tempted by the grass, had wandered off the road, 

 and carried me against the horizontal branch of a 

 blackthorn-tree. In a few minutes I had convinced 

 myself as to the extent of the damage done ; and I 

 consoled myself with the reflection that my nose, 

 though feeling very much as if the redoubtable Sayers 

 had been practising upon it, was still in its proper 

 place a fact about which, at first, grave doubts had 

 arisen in my mind. 



