, and occasionally biting
too; all which accomplishments, I afterwards learned, however little in
request in civil life, are highly prized in the horse police.

"Every new order of the sergeant was followed in his own fashion by
Marius, who very soon contrived to concentrate in my unhappy person all
the interest of about fifteen hundred people.

"'Secure that scoundrel," said the magistrate, pointing with his finger
towards me, as I rode over a respectable-looking old lady, with a gray
muff. 'Secure him. Cut him down.'

"'Ah, devil's luck to him, if ye do,' said a newsmonger with a broken
shin.

"On I went, however; and now, as the Fates would have it, instead of
bearing me out of further danger, the confounded brute dashed onward to
where the magistrate was standing, surrounded by policemen. I thought
I saw him change color as I came on. I suppose my own looks were none
of the pleasantest, for the worthy man evidently liked them not. Into
the midst of them we plunged, upsetting a corporal, horse and all, and
appearing as if bent upon reaching the alderman.

"'Cut him down, for Heaven's sake. Will nobody shoot him?" said he,
with a voice trembling with fear and anger.

"At these words a wretch lifted up his sabre, and made a cut at my
head. I stooped suddenly, and throwing myself from the saddle, seized
the poor alderman round the neck, and both came rolling to the ground
together. So completely was he possessed with the notion that I meant
to assassinate him, that while I was endeavoring to extricate myself
from his grasp, he continued to beg his life in the most heart-rending
manner.

"My story is now soon told. So effectually did they rescue the
alderman from his danger that they left me insensible, and I only came
to myself some days after by finding myself in the dock in Green
Street, charged with an indictment of nineteen counts; the only word of
truth is what lay in the preamble, for the 'devil inciting' me only
would ever have made me the owner of that infernal beast, the cause of
all my misfortunes. I was so stupefied from my beating that I know
little of the course of the proceedings. My friends told me afterward
that I had a narrow escape from transportation; but for the greatest
influence exerted in my behalf, I should certainly have passed the
autumn in the agreeable recreation of pounding oyster-shells or carding
wool; and it certainly must have gone hard with me, for, stupefied as I
wa