unded into the ring, flinging his Spanish hat high into the air.

Gypsy Will.--'The best man in England for twenty pounds!'

Thurtell.--'I am backer!'

Twenty pounds is a tempting sum, and there were men that day upon the
green meadow who would have shed the blood of their own fathers for the
fifth of the price. But the Gypsy was not an unknown man, his prowess
and strength were notorious, and no one cared to encounter him. Some of
the Jews looked eager for a moment; but their sharp eyes quailed quickly
before his savage glances, as he towered in the ring his huge form
dilating, and his black features convulsed with excitement. The
Westminster bravoes eyed the Gypsy askance; but the comparison, if they
made any, seemed by no means favourable to themselves. 'Gypsy! rum
chap.--Ugly customer,--always in training.' Such were the exclamations
which I heard, some of which at that period of my life I did not
understand.

No man would fight the Gypsy.--Yes! a strong country fellow wished to win
the stakes, and was about to fling up his hat in defiance, but he was
prevented by his friends, with--'Fool! he'll kill you!'

As the Gypsies were mounting their horses, I heard the dusty phantom
exclaim--

'Brother, you are an arrant ring-maker and a horse-breaker; you'll make a
hempen ring to break your own neck of a horse one of these days.'

They pressed their horses' flanks, again leaped over the ditches, and
speedily vanished, amidst the whirlwinds of dust which they raised upon
the road.

The words of the phantom Gypsy were ominous. Gypsy Will was eventually
executed for a murder committed in his early youth in company with two
English labourers, one of whom confessed the fact on his death-bed. He
was the head of the clan Young, which, with the clan Smith, still haunts
two of the eastern counties.

* * * * *

'I say, Jasper, what remarkable names your people have!'

'And what pretty names, brother; there's my own for example, Jasper; then
there's Ambrose and Sylvester; then there's Culvato, which signifies
Claude; then there's Piramus--that's a nice name, brother.'

'Then there's your wife's name, Pakomovna; then there's Ursula and
Morella.'

'Then, brother, there's Ercilla.'

'Ercilla! the name of the great poet of Spain, how wonderful; then
Leviathan.'

'The name of a ship, brother; Leviathan was named after a ship, so don't
make a wonder out of her. But there's Sanpriel and Synfye.'

'Ay, and Clemen