some
time in vain. I had been terribly shaken by my fall, and had
subsequently, owing to the incision of the surgeon's lancet, been
deprived of much of the vital fluid; it is when the body is in such a
state that the merest trifles affect and agitate the mind; no wonder,
then, that the return of the surgeon and the master of the house for the
purpose of inquiring whether I would sell my horse, struck me as being
highly extraordinary, considering the hour of the night, and the
situation in which they knew me to be. What could they mean by such
conduct--did they wish to cheat me of the animal? 'Well, well,' said I,
'if they did, what matters, they found their match; yes, yes,' said I,
'but I am in their power, perhaps'--but I instantly dismissed the
apprehension which came into my mind, with a pooh, nonsense! in a little
time, however, a far more foolish and chimerical idea began to disturb
me--the idea of being flung from my horse? was I not disgraced for ever
as a horseman by being flung from my horse? Assuredly, I thought; and
the idea of being disgraced as a horseman, operating on my nervous
system, caused me very acute misery. 'After all,' said I to myself, 'it
was perhaps the contemptible opinion which the surgeon must have formed
of my equestrian powers, which induced him to offer to take my horse off
my hands; he perhaps thought I was unable to manage a horse, and
therefore in pity returned in the dead of night to offer to purchase the
animal which had flung me; and then the thought that the surgeon had
conceived a contemptible opinion of my equestrian powers, caused me the
acutest misery, and continued tormenting me until some other idea (I have
forgot what it was, but doubtless equally foolish) took possession of my
mind. At length, brought on by the agitation of my spirits, there came
over me the same feeling of horror that I had experienced of old when I
was a boy, and likewise of late within the dingle; it was, however, not
so violent as it had been on those occasions, and I struggled manfully
against it, until by degrees it passed away, and then I fell asleep; and
in my sleep I had an ugly dream. I dreamt that I had died of the
injuries I had received from my fall, and that no sooner had my soul
departed from my body than it entered that of a quadruped, even my own
horse in the stable--in a word, I was, to all intents and purposes, my
own steed; and as I stood in the stable chewing hay (and I remember