ANECDOTES ABOUT DOGS 357 



Sampson, the Mastiff, we heard all of a sudden a ter- 

 rible noise of dogs fighting in the yard, and on run- 

 ning out, saw two great dogs fiercely at work with 

 old Sampson. They had got him down, and seemed 

 tearing him into very atoms. Our master made no 

 more to do, but in he ran, snatched down the gun, and 

 fired at the dogs, but it was too late, they were just 

 going over the yard wall together, and I dare say, got 

 off without the peppering master meant for them. But 

 there, however, was old Sampson, as dead as the stones 

 he lay upon ! " " And you thought," said the Squire, 

 " that one of the dogs resembled my setter? " " Nay," 

 said the Ostler, " both of them. One was the very 

 picture of the other, and if they were not your setters, 

 they were no dogs at all ! " "' It is very wonderful," 

 said the Squire, " but I have not a doubt but that you 

 are quite right in your belief, and this accounts for 

 what, till this moment, has very much puzzled me. My 

 dog was so resentful of the injury and insult that he 

 received from your Mastiff, that he without doubt com- 

 municated his grievances to his brother dog, and pre- 

 vailed on him to set out on a pilgrimage of revenge. 

 The dogs disappeared for a week or more together, 

 they came back wounded, and in that misera- 

 ble plight, that they never recovered it. The 

 dogs, let me tell you, are both dead, and I 

 would not have taken a hundred pounds for 

 them." The Ostler and all the people about the inn 

 were wonderfully surprised at the story, and a wonder- 

 ful circumstance it was, to be sure. My grandfather, 



