Page:The parochial history of Cornwall.djvu/281

Rh soon as he did, he went back the road way in quest of him, calling him aloud by his name; but receiving no answer, nor being able to find the horse, he concluded his master had rode home to his house some other way, whereupon, giving up all further search after him, he hastened home to Constantine, expecting to have met him there; but, contrary to his expectations, found he was not returned. Whereupon his servants, early next morning, went forth to inquire after him, and suspecting (as it happened) he might be fallen into some tin-shafts about Redruth, hastened thither, where, before they arrived, some tinners had taken into custody his horse (with bridle and saddle on) which they found grazing on the Wastrell Downs. Whereupon, consulting together about this tragical mishap, it was resolved forthwith that some of those tinners, for reward, should search the most dangerous shafts in order to find his body either living or dead; accordingly they employed themselves that day till about four o'clock in the afternoon without any discovery of him. Finally, one person returned to his company, and told them that at a considerable distance he heard a kind of human voice under ground; to which place they repaired, and making loud cries to the hole of the shaft, he forthwith answered them that he was there alive, and prayed their assistance in order to deliver him from that tremendous place; whereupon, immediately they set on tackle-ropes and windlass on the old shaft, so that a tinner descended to the place where he rested, and having candle-light with him bound him fast in a rope, and so drew him safely to land, where, to their great admiration and joy, it appeared he had neither broke any bone, or was much bruised by the fall; verifying together the attribute of Divine Omnipotence that nothing is impossible with God, and that old English proverb, that drunkards seldom take hurt; for, as the tinners said, if he had fallen but two or three feet lower, he must inevitably have