Читать книгу The Pedestrian's Guide through North Wales. A tour performed in 1837 онлайн

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The bumkin, however, took no further notice of it than to assure him, if he did not presently take to his heels, he would toss him out on the prongs of his fork.

O! what a field for fancy did this threat open to his susceptible mind! The tattered hat of the unceremonious gardener was converted into a coronet of snakes that reared their threatening crests and hissed furiously at the astonished hero. His ruddy face assumed the Gorgon’s look, turning him almost into stone. The weapon in his hand grew fiery red, and for a foot there seemed a cloven hoof.

An attempted application of the torturing steel however, gave motion to his limbs;—away he scampered up the steep ascent, not daring to turn a solitary glance behind, until he reached the spot from whence he fell.

This accident conjured up a train of reflections upon the vanity of human wishes! “Alas!” exclaimed he, “it is but a few minutes since I fancied myself a hero at the head of a victorious army, before which thousands would turn and fly, or grimly bite the dust; and now I find myself a wretched thing! routed by a base born hind with a muck fork in his hand! Oh! vile disgrace! I only wish that fellow may see me on the boards to-morrow night—I’ll frown him into a liquid.”