To Me It Was An Awful Object-Lesson, And Held Me
Fascinated With Horror.
For this was death!
The crimson torrents of
blood, the deep, human-like cries, made the beast appear like some
huge, powerful man caught in a snare by small, weak, but cunning
adversaries, who tortured him for their delight and mocked him in his
agony.
There were other occurrences about that time to keep the thoughts and
fear of death alive. One day a traveller came to the gate, and, after
unsaddling his horse, went about sixty or seventy yards away to a
shady spot, where he sat down on the green slope of the foss to cool
himself. He had been riding many hours in a burning sun, and wanted
cooling. He attracted everybody's attention on his arrival by his
appearance: middle-aged, with good features and curly brown hair and
beard, but huge - one of the biggest men I had ever seen; his weight
could not have been under about seventeen stone. Sitting or reclining
on the grass, he fell asleep, and rolling down the slope fell with a
tremendous splash into the water, which was about six feet deep. So
loud was the splash that it was heard by some of the men at work in
the barn, and running out to ascertain the cause, they found out what
had happened. The man had gone under and did not rise; with a good
deal of trouble he was raised up and drawn with ropes to the top of
the bank.
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