must necessarily end. But, alas! he reckoned without his host. Far
from halting at this obstruction, the horse sprang over it with
amazing agility, to the utter confusion and disorder of his owner,
who lost his hat and periwig in the leap, and now began to think,
in good earnest, that he was actually mounted on the back of the
devil. He recommended himself to God; his reflections forsook
him; his eyesight and all his other senses failed; he quitted the
reins, and fastening by instinct on the mane, was in this condition
conveyed into the midst of the sportsmen, who were astonished at
the sight of such an apparition. Neither was their surprise to be
wondered at, if we reflect on the figure that presented itself to
their view. The commodore's person was at all times an object of
admiration; much more so on this occasion, when every singularity
was aggravated by the circumstances of his dress and disaster.

He had put on, in honour of his nuptials, his best coat of blue
broad-cloth, cut by a tailor of Ramsgate, and trimmed with five
dozen of brass buttons large and small; his breeches were of the
same piece, fastened at the knees with large bunches of tape; his
waistcoat was of red plush lappelled with green velvet, and garnished
with vellum holes; his boots bore an infinite resemblance, both in
colour and shape, to a pair of leather buckets; his shoulder was
graced with a broad buff belt, from whence depended a huge hanger
with a hilt like that of a backsword; and on each side of his pommel
appeared a rusty pistol rammed in a case covered with a bearskin.
The loss of his tie-periwig and laced hat, which were curiosities
of the kind, did not at all contribute to the improvement of the
picture, but, on the contrary, by exhibiting his bald pate, and
the natural extension of his lantern jaws, added to the peculiarity
and extravagance of the whole.