and laid fast hold on the pommel, contracting
every muscle in his body to secure himself in the seat, and grinning
most formidably in consequence of this exertion. In this attitude he
was hurried on a considerable way, when all of a sudden his view was
comforted by a five-bar gate that appeared before him, as he never
doubted that there the career of his hunter must necessarily end.
But, alas! he reckoned without his host. Far from halting at this
obstruction, the horse sprang over it with amazing agility, to the utter
confusion and disorder of his owner, who lost his hat and periwig in
the leap, and now began to think, in good earnest, that he was actually
mounted on the back of the devil. He recommended himself to God; his
reflections forsook him; his eyesight and all his other senses failed;
he quitted the reins, and fastening by instinct on the mane, was in this
condition conveyed into the midst of the sportsmen, who were astonished
at the sight of such an apparition. Neither was their surprise to be
wondered at, if we reflect on the figure that presented itself to their
view. The commodore's person was at all times an object of admiration;
much more so on this occasion, when every singularity was aggravated by
the circumstances of his dress and disaster.

He had put on, in honour of his nuptials, his best coat of blue
broad-cloth, cut by a tailor of Ramsgate, and trimmed with five dozen
of brass buttons large and small; his breeches were of the same piece,
fastened at the knees with large bunches of tape; his waistcoat was of
red plush lappelled with green velvet, and garnished with vellum holes;
his boots bore an infinite resemblance, both in colour and shape, to a
pair of leather buckets; his shoulder was graced with a broad buff belt,
from whence depended a huge hanger with a hilt like that of a backsword;
and on each side of his pommel appeared a rusty pistol rammed in a case
covered with a bearskin. The loss of his tie-periwig and laced hat,
which were curiosities of the kind, did not at all contribute to the
improvement of the picture, but, on the contrary, by exhibiting his
bald pate, and the natural extension of his lantern jaws, added to the
peculiarity and extravagance of the whole.

Such a spectacle could not have failed of diverting the whole company
from the chase had his horse thought proper to pursue a different route;
but the beast was too keen a sporter to choose any other way than that
which the