beyond this he was "quite chap-fallen," ing up, with streamers flying and my had not a word to throw at a dog, or indeed very wisely fell asleep, when any other game was started. The whole art of training (I, however, learnt from him,) consists in two things, exercise and abstinence, abstinence and exercise, repeated alternately and without end. A yolk of an egg with a spoonful of rum in it is the first thing in a morning, and then a walk of six miles till breakfast. This meal consists of a plentiful supply of tea and toast and beef-steaks. Then anothor six or seven miles till dinner-time, and another supply of solid beef or mutton with a pint of porter, and perhaps, at the utmost, a couple of glasses of sherry. Then follows an hour of social chat and native glee; and afterwards, to another breathing over heathy hill or dale. Back to supper, and then to bed, and up by six again-Our hero "Follows to the ever-running sun, With profitable ardour—" to the day that brings him victory or defeat in the green fairy circle. Is not this life more sweet than mine? I was going to say; but I will not libel any life by comparing it to mine, which is (at mine,which the date of these presents) bitter as coloquintida and the dregs of aconitum! The morning dawns; that dim but yet clear light appears, which weighs like solid bars of metal on the sleepless eyelids. The day was fine, the sky was blue, the mists were retiring from the marshy ground, the path was tolerably dry, the sitting-up all night had not done us much harm at least the cause vas good; we talked of this and that with amicable difference, roving and sipping of many subjects, but still invariably we returned to the fight. At length, a mile to the left of Hungerford, on a gentle eminence, we saw the ring surrounded by covered carts, gigs, and carriages, of which hundreds had passed us on the road; Toms gave a youthful shout, and we hastened down a narrow lane to the scene of action. Reader! have you ever seen a fight? If not, you have a pleasure to come, at least if it is a fight like that between the Gas-man and Bill Neate. The crowd was very great when we arrived on the spot; open carriages were com sic playing, and the country-people were pouring in over hedge and ditch in all directions, to see their hero beat or be beaten. The odds were still on Gas, but only about five to four. Gully had been down to try Neate, and had backed him considerably, which was a damper to the sanguine confidence of the adverse party. About two hundred thousand pounds were pending. The Gas says, he has lost 3,000l. which were promised him by different gentlemen if he had won. He had presumed too much on himself, which made others presume on him. This spirited and formidable young fellow seems to have taken for his motto the old maxim, that "there are three things necessary to success in life-Impudence! Impudence! Impudence!" It is so in matters of opinion, but not in the Fancy, which is the most practical of all things, though even here confidence is half the battle, but only half. Our friend had vapoured and swaggered too much, as if he wanted to grin and bully his adversary out of the fight. "Alas! the Bristol man was not so tamed !”— "This is the grave-digger" (would Tom Hickman exclaim in the moments of intoxication from gin and success, shewing his tremendous right hand), "this will send many of them to their long homes; I haven't done with them yet!" Why should he-though he had licked four of the best men within the hour, yet why should he threaten to inflict dishonourable chastisement on my old master Richmond, a veteran going off the stage, and who has borne his sable honours meekly? Magnanimity, my dear Tom, and bravery, should be inseparable. Or why should he go to his antagonist, the first time he ever saw him at the Fives Court, and measuring him from head to foot with a glance of contempt, as Achilles surveyed Hector, say to him-"What, are you Bill Neate? I'll knock more blood out of that great carcase of thine, this day fortnight, than you ever knock'd out of a bullock's!" It was not manly, it was not fighter-like. If he was sure of the victory (as he was not), the less said about it the better. Modesty should accompany the Fancy as its shadow. The best men were always the best behaved. Jem Belcher, the Game Chicken (before whom the Gasman could not have lived) were civil, silent men. So is Cribb, so is Tom Belcher, the most elegant of sparrers, and not a man for every one to take by the nose. I enlarged on this topic in the mail (while Turtle was asleep), and said very wisely (as I thought) that impertinence was a part of no profession. A boxer was bound to beat his man, but not to thrust his fist, either actually or by implication, in every one's face. Even a highwayman, in the way of trade, may blow out your brains, but if he uses foul language at the same time, I should say he was no gentleman. With my own prepossessions on the subject, the result of the 11th of December appeared to me as fine a piece of poetical justice as I had ever witnessed. The difference of weight between the two combatants (14 stone to 12) was nothing to the sporting men. Great, heavy, clumsy, long-armed Bill Neate kicked the beam in the scale of the Gas-man's vanity. The amateurs were frightened at his big words, and thought they would make up for the difference of six feet and five feet nine. Truly, the FANCY are not men of imagination. They judge of what has been, and cannot conceive of any thing that is to be. The Gas-man had won hitherto; therefore he must beat a man half as big again as himself and that to a certainty. Besides, there are as many feuds, factions, prejudices, pedantic notions in the FANCY as in the state or in the schools. But enough of reflections, and to our tale. The day, as I have said, was fine for a December morning. The grass was wet and the ground miry, and ploughed up with multitudinous feet, except that within the ring itself, there was a spot of virgin-green closed in and unprofaned by vulgar tread, that shone with dazzling brightness in the mid-day sun. For it was now noon, and we had an hour to wait. This is the trying time. It is then the heart sickens, as you think what the two champions are about, and how short a time will determine their fate. After the first blow is struck, here is no opportunity for nervous ap prehensions; you are swallowed up in the immediate interest of the scenebut "Between the acting of a dreadful thing And the first motion, all the interim is Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream." The swells were parading in their white box-coats, the outer ring was cleared with some bruises on the heads and shins of the rustic assembly; the time drew near, I had got a good stand; a bustle, a buzz, ran through the crowd, and, from the opposite side entered Neate, between his second and bottleholder. He rolled along, swathed in his loose great coat, his knock-knees bending under his huge bulk; and, with a modest cheerful air, threw his hat into the ring. He then just looked round, and began quietly to undress; when from the other side there was a similar rush and an opening made, and the Gas-man came forward with a conscious air of anticipated triumph, too much like the cock-of-the-walk. He strutted about more than became a hero, sucked oranges with a supercilious air, and threw away the skin with a toss of his head, and went up and looked at Neate, which was an act of supererogation. The only sensible thing he did was, as he strode away from the modern Ajax, to fling out his arms, as if he wanted to try whether they would do their work that day. By this time they had stripped, and presented a strong contrast in appearance. If Neate was like Ajax," with Atlantean shoulders, fit to bear" the pugilistic reputation of all Bristol, Hickman might be compared to Diomed, light, vigorous, elastic, and his back glistened in the sun as he moved about, like a panther's hide. There was now a dead pauseattention was awe-struck. Who at that moment, big with a great event, did not draw his breath short-did not feel his heart throb? All was ready. They tossed up for the sun, and the Gas-man won. They were led up to the scratch-shook hands, and went at it. In the first round every one thought it was all over. After making play a short time, the Gas-man flew at his adversary like a tiger, struck five blows in as many seconds, three first, and following him as he staggered back, two more, right and left, and down he fell, a mighty ruin. There was a shout, and I said, "There is no standing this." Neate seemed like a lifeless lump of flesh and bone, round which the Gasman's blows played with the rapidity of electricity or lightning, and you imagined he would only be lifted up to be knocked down again. It was as if Hickman held a sword or a fire in that right hand of his, and directed it against an unarmed body. They met again, Neate seemed, not cowed, but particularly cautious. I saw his teeth clenched together and his brows knit close against the sun. He held out both his arms at full length straight before him, like two sledge-hammers, and raised his left an inch or two higher. The Gas-man could not get over this guard -they struck mutually and fell, but without advantage on either side. It was the same in the next round; but the balance of power was thus restored -the fate of the battle was thus suspended. No one could tell how it would end. This was the only moment in which opinion was divided; for, in the next, the Gas-man aiming a mortal blow at his adversary's neck, with his right hand, and failing from the length he had to reach, the other returned it with his left at full swing, planted a tremendous blow on his cheek-bone and eye-brow, and made a ruin of that side of his face. The Gas-man went down, and there was another shout-a roar of triumph as the waves of fortune rolled tumultuously from side to side. This was a settler. Hickman got up, and "grinned horrible a ghastly smile," yet he was evidently dashed in his opinion of himself; it was the first time he had ever been so punished; all one side of his face was perfect scarlet, and his right eye was closed in dingy blackness, as he advanced to the fight, less confident, but still determined. Af ter one or two rounds, not receiving another such remembrancer, he rallied and went at it with his former impetuosity. But in vain. His strength had been weakened,-his blows could not tell at such a distance, he was obliged to fling himself at his adversary, and could not strike from his feet; and almost as regularly as he flew at him with his right-hand, Neate warded the blow, or drew back out of its reach, and felled him with the return of his left. There was little cautious sparring-no halfhits-no tapping and trifling, none of the petit-maitreship of the art-they were almost all knock-down blows :the fight was a good stand-up fight, The wonder was the half-minute-time. If there had been a minute or more allowed between each round, it would have been intelligible how they should by degrees recover strength and resolution; but to see two men smashed to the ground, smeared with gore, stunned, senseless, the breath beaten out of their bodies; and then, before you recover from the shock, to see them rise up with new strength and courage, stand ready to inflict or receive mortal offence, and rush upon each other "like two clouds over the Caspian"—this is the most astonishing thing of all :this is the high and heroic state of man! From this time forward the event became more certain every round; and about the twelfth it seemed as if it must have been over. Hickman generally stood with his back to me; but in the scuffle, he had changed positions, and Neate just then made a tremendous lunge at him, and hit him full in the face, It was doubtful whether he would fall backwards or forwards; he hung suspended for a second or two, and then fell back, throwing his hands in the air, and with his face lifted up to the sky. I never saw any thing more terrific than his aspect just before he fell. All traces of life, of natural expres sion, were gone from him. His face was like a human skull, a death's head, spouting blood. The eyes were filled with blood, the nose streamed with blood, the mouth gaped blood. was not like an actual man, but like a preternatural, spectral appearance, or like one of the figures in Dante's Inferno. Yet he fought on after this for several rounds, still striking the first desperate blow, and Neate standing on the defensive, and using the same cautious guard to the last, as if he had still all his work to do; and it was not till He the Gas-man was so stunned in the seventeenth or eighteenth round, that his senses forsook him, and he could not come to time, that the battle was declared over.* Ye who despise the Fancy, do something to shew as much pluck, or as much self-possession as this, before you assume a superiority which you have never given a single proof of by any action in the whole course of your lives!-When the Gas-man came to himself, the first words he uttered were, "Where am I? What is the matter ?” “Nothing is the matter, Tom,-you have lost the battle, but you are the bravest man alive." And Jackson whispered to him, "I am collecting a purse for you, Tom."Vain sounds, and unheard at that moment! Neate instantly went up and shook him cordially by the hand, and seeing some old acquaintance, began to flourish with his fists, calling out, "Ah! you always said I couldn't fight-What do you think now?" But all in good humour, and without any appearance of arrogance; only it was evident Bill Neate was pleased that he had won the fight. When it was over, I asked Cribb if he did not think it was a good one? He said "Pretty well!" The carrier-pigeons now mounted into the air, and one of them flew with the news of her husband's victory to the bosom of Mrs. Neate. Alas, for Mrs. Hickman! Mais ou revoir, as Sir Fopling Flutter says. I went down with Toms; I returned with Jack Pigott, whom I met on the ground. Toms is a rattlebrain; Pigott is a sentimentalist Now, under favour, I am a sentimentalist too -therefore I say nothing, but that the interest of the excursion did not flag as I came back.-There were two strangers already in the post-chaise, and on their observing they supposed I had been to the fight, I said I had, and concluded they had done the same. They appeared however, a little shy and sore on the subject; and it was not till af ter several hints dropped, and questions put, that it turned out that they had missed it. One of the friends had undertaken to drive the other there in his gig: they had set out to make sure work the day before at 3 in the afternoon. The owner of the one-horsed vehicle scorned to ask his way, and drove on to Bagshot, instead of turning off at Hounslow: set off the next day across the country to Reading, from whence they took coach, and got down within a mile or two of Hungerford just half an hour after the fight was over. This might safely be set down as one of the miseries of human life. We parted with these two gentlemen at Wolhampton, and turned into an old bow-windowed parlour with a carpet and a snug fire; and after devouring a a quantity of tea, toast, and eggs, sat down to consider, during an hour of philosophic leisure, what we should have for supper. In the midst of an Epicurean deliberation between a roasted fowl and mutton-chops with mashed potatoes, we were interrupted by an inroad of Goths and Vandals-O procul este profani-not real flashmen, but interlopers, noisy pretenders, butchers from Tothill-fields, brokers from Whitechapel, who called immediately for pipes and tobacco, hoping it would not be disagreeable to the gentlemen, and began to insist that it was a cross. Pigott withdrew from the smoke and noise into another room, and left me to dispute the point with them for a couple of hours sans intermission by the dial. The next morning we rose refreshed and on observing that Jack had a pocket volume in his hand, in which he read in the intervals of our discourse, I inquired what it was, and learned to my particular satisfaction thai it was a volume of the New Eloise. Ladies, after this, will you contend that a love for the FANCY is in compatible with the cultivation of sentiment ?-We jogged on as before, my friend setting me up in a genteel drab great coat and Scroggins said of the Gas-man, that he thought he was a man of that courage, that if bis hands were cut off, he would still fight on with the stumps-like that of Widrington, "In doleful dumps, Who, when his legs were smitten off, Still fought upon his stumps." green silk handkerchief (which I must say became me exceedingly), and after stretching our legs for a few miles, and seeing Jack Randall, Ned Turner, and Scroggins, pass on the top of one of the Bath coaches, we engaged with the driver of the second to take us to London for the usual fee. (Monthly Magazine, Feb.) LETTER FROM MADRID. The following letter has been addressed to the Editor by an English gentleman at Madrid, to whom he transmitted some inquiries relative to the Spanish Patriots. Madrid, January 6, 1822. YOU ask me for some account of the heroes of the Spanish Revolution. I have been just talking over its perils with some of the principal actors in its glories. I am now smoking a segar, given me by the warmhearted QUIROGA, and, under its inspiration, will try to satisfy your de sires. How shall I begin? Shall I send you a portrait of each of these illustrious patriots? That I cannot do; but I will tell you what a beautiful Spanish lady said to a friend of mine, who asked for a description of RIEGO. "His image is so deeply engraved here (pres sing her forehead with her hand,) that were I a painter, you should have his very counterpart. But it is not enough to be a painter: one must burn with the same sacred fire that is kindled in him. That fire is in my bosom. He is not fair-no! but what does that matter? If he has not the beauty of form, he has all the beauty of generous passion, and that is better. His black eyes are always sparkling before me; busy, penetrating, enquiring ;—his lips express the delicacy of his sentiments; his hair is nearly black, but mixed with grey, though he has only seen thirty years to whiten it. His figure is of the middle size, but strikingly martial. You would fix on him for a hero. The love of liberty is in him ever obvious and ever active; he is alive to all its vibrations. You may read his thoughts and his affections. That gloom which hung upon the brow of Napolean, and which served to cover the deep purposes of personal ambition, never clouds his countenance. He is too ardent to bury himself in long concentrated thoughts. He is the soldier's brother. A sergeant and a man from the ranks are always with him. He was made a prisoner in the war of independence, and remained two years in France, where he cultivated his mind with continual study. He speaks French, and Italian admirably. Towards me she continued) his conduct has been a model of grace and politeness. When he arrived here, I could not separate myself from him. He knew that I loved one of the companions of his perils and his glories; and they say he is a lover. This annoys me. He will then devote himself to something besides his country: he may then love something besides liberty! He should never marry; it would be infidelity to the nation. he not pledged to her? And thencould other women love him ?” Is The part which Riego took in the movements of the Isla de Leon-the series of melancholy events which dispersed his little band, and left him to wander in solitude and despair-are such as even now, when the dangers are passed and the victory is achieved, I can hardly think of without trembling. After several vain attempts to enter Cadiz, he left Quiroga in San Fernando, for the purpose of exciting the public feeling in different parts of Andalusia. His division consisted of 1500 men, with whom he marched upon Chiclana, whose authorities fled on his arrival. From thence he proceeds to Algesiras, in the hope that the friends of freedom in Gibraltar would facilitate his objects and provide for his wants. In some of the villages he was received with ecstasy, in others with alarm. At Algesiras the people crowded to welcome him, but refused to join his banners. The coldness of the Governor of Gibraltar, and the interruption |