derstood; and now partly disengaging itself from my bosom, where
it had lain perdu, it raised its head to a level with my face, and stared
upon my enemy with its glittering eyes."

The superstitious gypsies were effectively terrified, and invited the lad
into their tent: "Don't be angry, and say no; but look kindly upon us,
and satisfied, my precious little God Almighty."

They had taken him for a goblin, but when he explained that he was not
"one of them there," the man said, "You are a sap-engro, a chap who
catches snakes, and plays tricks with them." Then, when the boy
proceeded to read them a bit of "Robinson Crusoe," it was voted that it
"beat the rubricals hollow." Next followed the momentous meeting with
Ambrose Smith--the Jasper Petulengro of Borrow's pages--and, as the band
of gypsies were departing, Jasper, turning round, leered into the little
Gorgio's face, held out his hand, and said, "Goodbye, Sap, I daresay we
shall meet again; remember we are brothers, two gentle brothers." Gazing
after the retreating company, the sap-engro said to himself, "A strange
set of people, I wonder who they can be." Such was Borrow's first
introduction to the Romany folk.

From July, 1811, to July, 1814, the Borrows led a nomadic life, yet at
each tarrying-place Captain Borrow sent his sons to the best school
available, and George, in these three years' travelling with the
regiment, acquired Lilly's Latin Grammar by heart. A Dereham
schoolmaster had assured Captain Borrow that "there is but one good
school book in the world--the one I use in my seminary--Lilly's Latin
Grammar." There is, it may be added, good evidence that Shakespeare was
taught out of this venerable work.

Early in 1813 our interesting family were in Edinburgh, where the Borrow
boys were sent to the celebrated High School, and George entered with
zest into the faction fights between the Auld and the New Toon. More,
and better than this, he picked up just such a wild character as fitted
in with his romantic scheme of things. This was David Haggart, son of a
gamekeeper and guilty of nearly every crime in the Statute Book under
various aliases--John Wilson, John Morrison, John McColgan, David
O'Brien, and "The Switcher." Haggart enlisted as a drummer-boy in
Captain Borrow's recruiting-party at Leith Races in July, 1813, being
then just twelve years old; but soon tiring of discipline and scanty pay,
obtained his discharge, soon after embarking on a car