Page:Amusing stories of animals.pdf/4

 from the Annandale side, fettered with ropes as is usual and necessary, though not so completely as it ought to have been. One rope connected the two fore legs, and a second, though smaller one, crossed and recrossed the head and neck, leaving the driver a very ample latitude of rein. When nearly opposite to Mr Beck's coach-work, he became uneasy, from the passersby, and other works, paused and looked round at his motley followers, tossed his noble head in angry defiance, and more than once attempted to work his Majesty's lieges some deadly skaith. With great difficulty, he was piloted past the King's Arms, and when he got into the High-street, he made a dead halt, and seemed to regard the area, from its great width, as an excellent station for showing fight. The driver stood at a respectful distance, adapting his position to the motion of the bull, and so as to be out of harm's-way; and though curs yelped, and boys hallooed, and even men threw their bonnets at his head, he scorned all such petty annoyances and still kept his station on the crown of the causeway. The door of every shop was beseiged with spectators; the sash of every window thrown up; behind, before, and round-about, men, women, and children rushed as near as they durst to the scene of action; and the crowd, in a word, like a snaw-ball, rolled during a moderate thaw, soon increased to a prodigious size. While all this was going forward, the bull by pawing actually acted the part of a pavior, and trotted sadly under his manacles;