146 AN ENGLISH GAMEKEEPER, 



his home at Ramsbury. Wonderful to relate, 

 after this last dose of gaol he turned over a 

 new leaf, and became an honest, and even a 

 pious and good man. His father, curiously 

 enough, was a Methodist preacher, whom I 

 often used to hear preaching by the road side, 

 at Chilton. 



Mr. Ball cross examined me pretty sharply 

 at the trial, but I answered him up, and I think 

 he got almost as good as he gave. There was 

 no doubt in my own mind, that if the caps had 

 not fallen off the gun during the struggle, I 

 should either have been killed or else badly 

 wounded, as there is no knowing what a man 

 will do when his blood is up. I never bore 

 malice, though, and if Alexander did snap the 

 gun at me, I am quite willing to put it down 

 as an accident, though, had the caps been on, 

 the probability is that I should never have 

 written this book. 



After the trial I met the policeman who had 

 impersonated Alexander, outside the court, and 

 complimented him on his acting, telling him 

 that if he had been Alexander himself, and 



