The Westminster bravoes eyed the Gypsy askance;
but the comparison, if they made any, seemed by no means favourable
to themselves. 'Gypsy! rum chap. - Ugly customer, - always in
training.' Such were the exclamations which I heard, some of which
at that period of my life I did not understand.
No man would fight the Gypsy. - Yes! a strong country fellow wished
to win the stakes, and was about to fling up his hat in defiance,
but he was prevented by his friends, with - 'Fool! he'll kill you!'
As the Gypsies were mounting their horses, I heard the dusty
phantom exclaim -
'Brother, you are an arrant ring-maker and a horse-breaker; you'll
make a hempen ring to break your own neck of a horse one of these
days.'
They pressed their horses' flanks, again leaped over the ditches,
and speedily vanished, amidst the whirlwinds of dust which they
raised upon the road.
The words of the phantom Gypsy were ominous. Gypsy Will was
eventually executed for a murder committed in his early youth, in
company with two English labourers, one of whom confessed the fact
on his death-bed. He was the head of the clan Young, which, with
the clan Smith, still haunts two of the eastern counties.
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