AND ITS RESULTS 207 



dream that there would exist in the very heart of 

 Easyallshire one so benighted as to object to the 

 inroads made upon him by that renowned pack, the 

 Muggers. But I reckoned without my host, or 

 rather, as the sequel will show, with my host ; for 

 as, in my endeavours to save my now somewhat 

 exhausted liorse, I rode at what appeared an easy 

 place in a very high fence, bounded on the off-side 

 with a stiff post and rail, an irate elderly gentleman, 

 gesticulating, shouting, and waving an umbrella in 

 his hand, suddenly rose up as it were from the very 

 bowels of the earth, just as my steed was preparing 

 to make his spring, thus causing the spirited animal 

 to rear up, and, overbalancing himself, to fall 

 heavily to the ground with me under him. When 

 I next recovered consciousness and opened my eyes, 

 I was beinc^ borne alono- on a hurdle, by the author of 

 my misfortunes — a gray-haired, piebald-whiskered, 

 stout, little, red-faced old gentleman — and two of 

 his satellites, whom I rightly conjectured to be the 

 coachman and gardener ; but the pain of my broken 

 leg made me relapse into unconsciousness, nor did 

 the few wits I by nature possess return to me again 

 until I was laid on a bed, and a medical practitioner 

 of the neighbourhood was busy at work setting my 

 fractured limb. To make a long story short, I 

 remained under the roof of Major Pipeclay — for 



