70 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



hours more. This saved the ass from final dissolution : 

 she rose up and walked about j she seemed neither in 

 agitation nor in pain. The wound through which the 

 poison entered was healed without difficulty. Her con- 

 stitution, however, was so severely affected, that it was 

 long a doubt if ever she would be well again. She 

 looked lean and sickly for above a year, but began to 

 mend the spring after ; and by Midsummer became 

 fat and frisky. 



The kind-hearted reader will rejoice on learning that 

 Earl Percy, pitying her misfortunes, sent her down 

 from London to Walton Hall, near Wakefield. There 

 she goes by the name of Wouralia. Wouralia shall be 

 sheltered from the wintry storm ; and when summer 

 comes, she shall feed in the finest pasture. ~No burden 

 shall be placed upon her, and she shall end her days in 

 peace. * 



For three revolving autumns, the ague-beaten wan- 

 derer never saw, without a sigh, the swallow bend her 

 flight towards warmer regions. He wished to go too, 

 but could not ; for sickness had enfeebled him, and 

 prudence pointed out the folly of roving again, too 

 soon, across the northern tropic. To be sure, the Con- 

 tinent was now open, and change of air might prove 

 beneficial ; but there was nothing very tempting in a 

 trip across the Channel ; and as for a tour through 

 England ! — England has long ceased to be the land for 

 adventures. Indeed, when good King Arthur reappears 

 to claim his crown, he will find things strangely altered 

 here ; and may we not look for his coming % for there 

 is written upon his grave -stone : — 



* Poor Wouralia breathed her last on the 15th of February, 1839, having 

 survived the operation nearly five-and-twenty years. 



