Page:Amusing stories of animals.pdf/5

 "many a time and oft" he tried to get rid of the ugly cords, and after repeated failures, he bellowed and tossed his lordly head, and said as plain as a brute can speak, "only make me as free as nature formed me, and I will instantly charge and put to the rout the universal people of Dumfries." And to confess the truth, he had well nigh made his threats good. An unthinking cur which crossed before him was charged and almost annihilated in a moment, and a second charge was made on a heavily laden carrier's cart, or rather on two men stationed behind it. The concussion was fearful; the cart was but as a feather on the animal's neck, and the haste with which the men scampered away illustrated more strongly than any thing we ever witnessed before, the mettle which fear puts into people's heels. Different ladies were confined in shops, and kept in a state of great trepidation, and some of them, we understand, were fain to scramble out by back windows, and thread the mazes of lanes and closses, such as persons of quality do not often visit. At times the bull, though still partly kept in check, indicated a wish to peep into the shops; but the merchants and their friends seemed to regard him as rather an ugly customer, and as often as he veered to this side or that, they retired simultaneously into the interior, closing the folding doors behind them. In a place of business immediately opposite to our office, we observed two functionaries stationed, but so far from preserving the peace of the burgh, they