but having my establishment of dogs (taxes taken into
consideration), I ordered him to be shut out. He would not leave the
iron gates; and when they were opened, in he bolted, and hastening to
the stables, found out the ponies, and was not to be dislodged from
under the manger without a determined resistance. This alternate
bolting in and bolting out continued for many days; finding that I could
not get rid of him, I sent him away forty miles in the country; but he
returned the next day, expressing the most extravagant joy at the sight
of the ponies, who, strange to say, were equally pleased, allowing him
to put his paws upon them, and bark in their faces. But although the
ponies were partial to the dog, I was not; and aware that a voyage is a
great specific for curing improper attachments, I sent the dog down the
river in a barge, requesting the men to land him where they were bound,
on the other side of the Medway; but in three days the dog again made
his appearance, the picture of famine and misery. Even the coachman's
heart was melted, and the rights and privileges of his favourite
snow-white terrier were forgotten. It was therefore agreed, in a
cabinet council held in the harness room, that we must make the best of
it; and, as the dog would not leave the ponies, the best thing we could
do, was to put a little flesh on his bones, and make him look
respectable. We therefore victualled him that day, and put him on our
books with the purser's name of Pompey. Now this dog proved, that
sudden as was his attachment to the ponies, it was of the strongest
quality. He never would and never has since left these animals. If
turned out in the fields, he remains out with them, night as well as
day, taking up his station as near as possible half way between the two,
and only coming home to get his dinner. No stranger can enter their
stables with impunity; for he is very powerful, and on such occasions
very savage. A year or two after his domiciliation, I sold the ponies,
and the parties who purchased were equally anxious at first to get rid
of the dog; but their attempts, like mine, were unavailing, and, like
me, they at last became reconciled to him. On my return from abroad, I
re-purchased them, and Pompey of course was included in the purchase.

We are none of us perfect--and Pompey had one vice; but the cause of the
vice almost changed it into a virtue. He had not a correct feeling
relative to _meum_ and _tuum_,