ting on my nervous
system, caused me very acute misery. "After all," said I to myself, "it
was perhaps the contemptible opinion which the surgeon must have formed
of my equestrian powers, which induced him to offer to take my horse off
my hands; he perhaps thought I was unable to manage a horse, and
therefore in pity returned in the dead of night to offer to purchase the
animal which had flung me;" and then the thought that the surgeon had
conceived a contemptible opinion of my equestrian powers, caused me the
acutest misery, and continued tormenting me until some other idea (I have
forgot what it was, but doubtless equally foolish) took possession of my
mind. At length, brought on by the agitation of my spirits, there came
over me the same feeling of horror that I had experienced of old when I
was a boy, and likewise of late within the dingle; it was, however, not
so violent as it had been on those occasions, and I struggled manfully
against it, until by degrees it passed away, and then I fell asleep; and
in my sleep I had an ugly dream. I dreamt that I had died of the
injuries I had received from my fall, and that no sooner had my soul
departed from my body than it entered that of a quadruped, even my own
horse in the stable--in a word, I was, to all intents and purposes, my
own steed; and as I stood in the stable chewing hay (and I remember that
the hay was exceedingly tough), the door opened, and the surgeon who had
attended me came in. "My good animal," said he, "as your late master has
scarcely left enough to pay for the expenses of his funeral, and nothing
to remunerate me for my trouble, I shall make bold to take possession of
you. If your paces are good, I shall keep you for my own riding; if not,
I shall take you to Horncastle, your original destination." He then
bridled and saddled me, and, leading me out, mounted, and then trotted me
up and down before the house, at the door of which the old man, who now
appeared to be dressed in regular jockey fashion, was standing. "I like
his paces well," said the surgeon; "I think I shall take him for my own
use." "And what am I to have for all the trouble his master caused me?"
said my late entertainer, on whose countenance I now observed, for the
first time, a diabolical squint. "The consciousness of having done your
duty to a fellow-creature in succouring him in a time of distress, must
be your reward," said the surgeon. "Pretty gammon, truly," said my late
en