Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 1.djvu/265

 I had scarcely had time to decide in my own mind on the respective merits of my two rival beauties, when the surgeon arrived; and, being ushered into the sick room, declared that the patient had been treated with skill, and that in all probability she owed her life to my presence of mind. "But, give me leave to ask," said the doctor, addressing the father, "how the accident happened?" The gentleman replied, that a scoundrel having got up behind the carriage, had been flogged off by the postilion; and in revenge, had thrown a stone, which knocked the driver off his horses: they took fright, turned round, and ran away down the hill towards their own stables; and after running five miles, upset the carriage against a post, "by which accident," said he, "my poor daughter was nearly killed."

"What a villain!" said the doctor.

"Villain, indeed," echoed I; and so I felt I was. I turned sick at the thoughts of what my ungoverned passion had done; and my regret