she hit the first of them
(for one was more active in the pursuit than the rest) where David did
Goliath, and killed him on the spot. His companions were so alarmed at
his fall that they retired, and left Uriah's wife to pursue her journey.
She took with her, I should have informed you before, her favourite son
by this connection, to whom she bequeathed the sling; and thus it has,
without interruption, descended from father to son till it came into my
possession. One of its possessors, my great-great-great-grandfather,
who lived about two hundred and fifty years ago, was upon a visit to
England, and became intimate with a poet who was a great deer-stealer;
I think his name was Shakespeare: he frequently borrowed this sling, and
with it killed so much of Sir Thomas Lucy's venison, that he narrowly
escaped the fate of my two friends at Gibraltar. Poor Shakespeare was
imprisoned, and my ancestor obtained his freedom in a very singular
manner. Queen Elizabeth was then on the throne, but grown so indolent,
that every trifling matter was a trouble to her; dressing, undressing,
eating, drinking, and some other offices which shall be nameless, made
life a burden to her; all these things he enabled her to do without, or
by a deputy! and what do you think was the only return she could prevail
upon him to accept for such eminent services? setting Shakespeare at
liberty! Such was his affection for that famous writer, that he would
have shortened his own days to add to the number of his friend's.

I do not hear that any of the queen's subjects, particularly the
_beef-eaters_, as they are vulgarly called to this day, however they
might be struck with the novelty at the time, much approved of her
living totally without food. She did not survive the practice herself
above seven years and a half.

My father, who was the immediate possessor of this sling before me, told
me the following anecdote:--

He was walking by the sea-shore at Harwich, with this sling in his
pocket; before his paces had covered a mile he was attacked by a fierce
animal called a seahorse, open-mouthed, who ran at him with great fury;
he hesitated a moment, then took out his sling, retreated back about
a hundred yards, stooped for a couple of pebbles, of which there were
plenty under his feet, and slung them both so dexterously at the animal,
that each stone put out an eye, and lodged in the cavities which their
removal had occasioned. He now got upon his back, a