62 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



seize my foot, and, holding tlie bridle locked in his elbow, he 

 endeavoured to throw me off the horse. To cant a man out of 

 a saddle, if you get him by the foot and knoio hoio to do it, is 

 not very difficult : this fellow might have seen it done, but was 

 not aware of the dodge to meet it. My leg I abandoned to him, 

 taking care not to stiffen my knee, while at the same time 

 drawing the double thong to the crop of the whip very tight, I 

 set to work on his of course undefended head, on which he had 

 neither hat nor cap but a good deal of powder. A fog of 

 powder soon arose, the colour of his hair became manifest, and 

 of course he got a broken pate. He held on to my leg like a 

 fool till he had received severely, and then ran away, saying he 

 was " going for a constable." The whole of this took much less 

 time than it does to write it, and Lyster, who had pulled up to 

 see the end of it, and myself again went out of the lane to- 

 gether. In a few days' time I had notice of an action for assault 

 from this man's attorney, when, on finding that his master 

 backed him in it, Mr. George Hawkins sought an interview for 

 me with him, at which he explained the fact of the servant being 

 the first aggressor, and told the master that if he sanctioned his 

 servant in the matter, he must give me satisfaction. The reply 

 that he gave Mr. Hawkins was, " that he had made his money 

 in trade, and would not fight." A defence to the action then 

 became needful, and I called on Lyster as the only witness of the 

 transaction to prove that the first assault had been made on me 

 in a public lane. " My dear fellow," was the reply, " don't for 

 Heaven's sake bring me into court, or I shall get into a devil of 

 a row : the fact is, I ought to have been a hundred miles away 

 with a recruiting party." A subpoena would have enforced my 

 witness's appearance, but we were much too good friends for 

 that, so per force, all idea of defence was abandoned, and I 

 directed my solicitor to make terms if he could. A surgeon of 

 course was found who stated that he was ready to swear that 

 (but for his skilful treatment) the blows the man's head had 

 received would have endangered life, and my solicitor declared 

 he thought the matter well arranged by my giving the servant 



