76 
THE SEA-SERPENT. 
angry hiss. O, woe betide that proctor then ! 
he ne’er before met foe like this, and ne’er 
shall meet such foe again. The serpent has got 
him fast by the leg ;—mercy ! list to his fear¬ 
ful screams !—it’s vain for mercy from him to 
beg. Some students, nodding over their themes, 
start, yawn, and stretch, and relapse into dreams. 
The snake, however, turned to flee, — leaving 
the proctor, as he thought, dead, — and then 
climbed up in Liberty Tree, and a tract on 
Ichthyology read. 
v. 
The students, next morning, going to prayers, 
found the snake coiled up on the chapel stairs ; 
and not far off from Gore Hall, ’t is said, the 
proctor lay quite bloody and dead, as they 
thought ; but when they called a doctor, they 
found life lingered within the proctor. To be 
sure, his leg was nearly bitten off, and the hand 
that holds the pen would ne’er look well save a 
glove or mitten were wrapped around it ; still, 
