nevertheless, the effects were too
visible, for, from that blessed moment, he spoke not one word to any
living creature for the space of three days; but was seen sometimes to
shed a flood of tears, and sometimes to burst out into a fit of laughing.
At last he broke silence, and seemed to wake from his disorder. He
became more fond than ever of the exercise of riding, and began to amuse
himself again with acts of benevolence.

"One instance of his generosity and justice deserves to be recorded in
brass or marble. You must know, gemmen, the rector of the parish was
lately dead, and Sir Everhard had promised the presentation to another
clergyman. In the meantime, Sir Launcelot chancing one Sunday to ride
through a lane, perceived a horse saddled and bridled, feeding on the
side of a fence; and, casting his eyes around, beheld on the other side
of the hedge an object lying extended on the ground, which he took to be
the body of a murdered traveller. He forthwith alighted, and, leaping
into the field, descried a man at full length, wrapped in a greatcoat and
writhing in agony. Approaching nearer, he found it was a clergyman, in
his gown and cassock. When he inquired into the case, and offered his
assistance, the stranger rose up, thanked him for his courtesy, and
declared that he was now very well. The knight who thought there was
something mysterious in this incident, expressed a desire to know the
cause of his rolling in the grass in that manner, and the clergyman, who
knew his person, made no scruple in gratifying his curiosity. 'You must
know, sir,' said he, 'I serve the curacy of your own parish, for which
the late incumbent paid me twenty pounds a year; but this sum being
scarce sufficient to maintain my wife and children, who are five in
number, I agreed to read prayers in the afternoon at another church,
about four miles from hence; and for this additional duty I receive ten
pounds more. As I keep a horse, it was formerly an agreeable exercise
rather than a toil; but of late years I have been afflicted with a
rupture, for which I consulted the most eminent operators in the kingdom;
but I have no cause to rejoice in the effects of their advice, though one
of them assured me I was completely cured. The malady is now more
troublesome than ever, and often comes upon me so violently while I am on
horseback, that I am forced to alight, and lie down upon the ground,
until the cause of the disorder can for the time