72 PETERSFIELD 



my naming the locality, he asked me many questions as 

 to the medical practitioner of that place, who it appeared 

 had been a very favourite pupil of his, and then dwelt 

 with remarkable exactness and much sympathy upon an 

 unfortunate fatal incident that had happened but a few 

 years before at Petersfield, to the gentleman to whose 

 practice his )^oung friend had succeeded. A poor sailor 

 had been found dead in that neighbourhood, and in sew- 

 ing up the body, after a post-mortem examination, he 

 punctured his finger, and decomposition having already 

 taken place, the wound festered, mortification ensued, 

 and put an end to his existence in a few days. 



Sir Astley then reverted to Hertfordshire, and asked 

 me if I had seen my friend at Redbourn lately. I told 

 him that I had lost sight of him for a long time. 



" Pray," asked he, "did he ever pay you for the buck 

 you procured for him from the Duke of Grafton's keeper 

 at Whittlebury Forest ? " 



I said that in the hurry of his departure I supposed he 

 must have forgotten it ; but that I freely forgave him ; 

 adding, that the doctor was a good fellow in the main, 

 though fortune had been hard with him, and that, in 

 his own nautical ]ano:uao:e, he was altoo-ether an odd 

 fish. 



Sir Astley again put on one of his good-natured smiles. 

 He inquired the origin of our acquaintance, which I 

 frankly told him. He listened with great attention, 

 though I fancied he had been made acquainted with the 

 principal features of the doctor's history before, and 

 something of mine. After half-an-hour's agreeable chat 

 he rose, and, shaking my hand, bade me farewell, desiring 



