by the crowd; indeed there were few persons amongst these who had been so situated as to be able to see it, and as Samuel Hargrave had reached the goal immediately after it had occurred, it may be reasonably supposed, that the attention of the mass had been otherwise occupied.

As to Lord F- -, he had seen what others had not seen, but, for the honour of his heartfor he was not altogether without a heart-he was by no means aware of the extent of the accident which had befallen Clayton; he was also much amused with what was going on in and about the duck pond, and thus, from one cause or another, some minutes had elapsed before any one came to the assistance of Henry besides Maurice; during which painful interval, the air rang with the shouts and cries of the giddy multitude, congratulating the conqueror. In the mean time Henry had ascertained with thankfulness that Clayton was not dead; he had muttered one or two words, but so inwardly, that Henry who began to feel himself very stiff, had ordered Maurice to put his ear near to his mouth to catch the sound.

"What does he say ?" asked Henry.

"He wants a drink, he says he's dry," replied the boy," and he calls on his friend, that is Wellings, I reckon."

Clayton then spoke so that Henry could hear him without stooping. "I am faint, Wellings," he said, "oh! I am faint."

"He calls on one who can't help him just now," said Maurice," and if he be dry, I reckon that's more than his friend is; but shall I get

him a drop from the public nigh handy,

master ?"

But Lord F. came up at this moment to Henry's relief, and seemed to be shocked when he found the condition of Clayton; and now Henry was almost as perplexed by the numbers of the assistants and advisers, as he had been with the few a moment before. However, feeling himself getting very uneasy from the pain in his arm, though at such a time he could not think of mentioning this minor trouble, he requested Lord F- to take the management of Clayton, and it was soon arranged that the poor young man should be taken up and conveyed to a house not far distant, which happened to be a small public house, and there being laid on a bed, in an upper room, the Spirehill surgeon, Mr. James, was sent for. And thus terminated the steeple chase, but as the events which depended on this same steeple chase are as yet by no means all enumerated, the historian is under the necessity of deferring the relation of them to another chapter.

CHAPTER IX.

High, Low, Jack, and the Game.

THE house into which the outward man or body of Mr. Clayton was conveyed-for it never could be ascertained whether he were or were not conscious of what was being done with him, or whether his mind accompanied the efforts of those who were transferring his person from the bare earth to the bed in an upper room of the inn, as, although the eyes of the crest-fallen hero were wide open during the process, he lent no assistance whatever to his bearers, nor gave the smallest hint either of acquiescence or of the contrary in what was being done with him :this inn, however, as we were saying, was little better than a common pot-house, though it had two decent rooms, with a bow window to that which was below, tacked on to the end of the older portion of the building. From the wall of this new building proceeded a beam, from which swung a flaming Saracen's Head, by which the house was named. It was to the

upper of these new rooms that this same body which appertained to Mr. Roger Clayton was conveyed, although the difficulty of bearing such a length of limb up the narrow winding stair was by no means small; at length, however, the weight was received upon a featherbed, the head being deposited on a pillow, and as soon as the men who had endured this labour were gone out to receive a reward which Henry had asked the hostess to give them, Mr. Roger uttered a deep groan, fetched a long breath, and exclaimed, "What are ye all about? how did it happen? was it me that was spilt ?—how was it, Eh, F ?"

"Recollect yourself, Clayton," said Lord F. "Don't you remember taking a flying leap over the hedge, and knocking poor Wellings to the antipodes ? By-the-bye, you should have seen him, Milner, when Marten fished him out of the green ditch; nor was the rescue effected altogether without risk to the exquisite's own person; but if ever you have happened to see an old bronze Neptune left to corrode in a tank where no sun comes, all covered with green mould and frog-spawn, you have just the figure of Wellings as he was rising, by the help of Marten's strong hand, from the filthy ooze, all lathered and bespattered with the refuse of the town ditch:-it was anything but Venus rising from the froth of the sea." But Henry was holding a cup of cold water to the lips of Clayton, whilst Maurice raised the head of the sufferer, and did not attend to what Lord F was saying; however, his Lordship went on: "Marten fished in the duck-pond, with a

stick which some old man handed to him, for some moments before he could find Wellings' paw, and then when Wellings had griped the wood, the exquisite gave it a pull. I verily thought I should have expired on the spot, for Wellings' hands were slimy-faugh! all green slime-and so he lost hold of the stick and fell back into the slough, and the exquisite had to fish for him again; and some vulgar wag amongst the lookers-on cried out, Don't stop stirring, sir, till the pudding's done;' and another added, I reckon it won't be worth much when it is done.' It was the best thing that I ever witnessed in my life; but what ails you, Milner," added the young nobleman, "you look very pale; sit down on this bed; I trust that you are not hurt." But before Henry could answer, Mr. James, accompanied by his nephew, who was his assistant, entered, saying, "I shall truly rejoice if this case is not more important than the one which I have just left; some one ran to me half an hour since to say that a young gentleman was half drowned, and expecting a case of suspension of animation at least, I and my nephew ran as if life had depended on our activity, and as if every moment were big with fate, and when we came to the place, we found nothing requisite but a second immersion, with an application of a certain saponaceous compound, often found effectual in many cases in which the mischief is decidedly only external."

“You have been with Mr. Wellings, sir ?" said Lord F

“I have, my Lord,” replied Mr. James. “I