Revenge. 231 
when the men left off work, to have the run of the out- 
buildings for the night. One day, when the dog was on the 
chain, a young groom named Jessop persistently irritated the 
dog by pushing his paunch towards him and pulling it away 
again with a broom, until at length he refused to eat, and lay 
down sullenly in his kennel. When he was at length released 
in the evening, he somehow managed to get out of the 
premises, probably by jumping the paddock gate. Later on, 
my brother-in-law was told by a visitor that one of his mex 
had been dreadfully bitten and half killed by a ferocious dog. 
An eye-witness, describing the occurrence, said that Jessop and 
he and two or three friends were drinking in ‘The Chequers,’ 
a public house near the station, when the door was pushed open, 
and a dog looked in and forthwith flew upon Jessop, who 
was completely unable to defend himself, and savagely tore 
him about the hands, face, and inside of the thigh, the last 
being a terrible wound. It was with great difficulty that he 
was got off and immediately shot. My brother-in-law had to pay 
a bill of £25 and £50 compensation, as nervous prostration 
ensued. When the facts of the case became known, it: was 
said by a beerhouse keeper at Harrow that during the evening 
he saw Carlo—whom he knew—look in at the tap-room and 
subsequently run out, evidently in search of someone, and ac- 
curately estimating the likeliest kind of place to find his 
enemy. He was a most docile creature, and I deeply deplore 
what I considered at the time little less than his assas- 
sination.” 
At first, one would be apt to consider the provocation here 
quite inadequate to bring about such serious consequences; 
but do we not all know what vast proportions a wrong brooded 
over assumed when we were children? Children of tender 
years have frequently gone out, smarting under the sense of 
injustice, and drowned or hanged themselves, or set fire to 
the house, and others have committed murder when labouring 
under an exaggerated and distorted impression of the conduct 
of some playmate. 
