WHAT a rate have I gone on at, curvetting and striking it away, two up
and two down for three volumes[15] together, without looking once
behind, or even on one side of me, to see whom I trod upon!—I’ll tread
upon no one——quoth I to myself when I mounted——I’ll take a good
rattling gallop; but I’ll not hurt the poorest jack-ass upon the
road.——So off I set——up one lane——down another, through this
turnpike——over that, as if the arch-jockey of jockeys had got behind
me.
Now ride at this rate with what good intention and resolution you
may——’tis a million to one you’ll do some one a mischief, if not
yourself——He’s flung—he’s off—he’s lost his hat—he’s down——he’ll break
his neck——see!——if he has not galloped full among the scaffolding of
the undertaking criticks!——he’ll knock his brains out against some of
their posts—he’s bounced out!—look—he’s now riding like a mad-cap full
tilt through a whole crowd of painters, fiddlers, poets, biographers,
physicians, lawyers, logicians, players, school-men, churchmen,
statesmen, soldiers, casuists, connoisseurs, prelates, popes, and
engineers.—Don’t fear, said I—I’ll not hurt the poorest jack-ass upon
the king’s highway.—But your horse throws dirt; see you’ve splash’d a
bishop——I hope in God, ’twas only _Ernulphus_, said I.——But you have
squirted full in the faces of Mess. _Le Moyne, De Romigny_, and _De
Marcilly_, doctors of the _Sorbonne._——That was last year, replied
I.—But you have trod this moment upon a king.——Kings have bad times
on’t, said I, to be trod upon by such people as me.
You have done it, replied my accuser.
I deny it, quoth I, and so have got off, and here am I standing with my
bridle in one hand, and with my cap in the other, to tell my
story.——And what in it? You shall hear in the next chapter.
[15] According to the preceding Editions.