“NARROW ESCAPE OF BENDIGO.――During the storm on Sunday night Bendigo who is in training at Crosby, near Liverpool, narrowly escaped being ‘gathered unto his fathers.’ It appears that Peter Taylor went to meet Bendigo on Monday morning, but not finding him at the appointed place, proceeded at once to Crosby, when he discovered that the house in which he had left his friend on the previous evening was almost in ruins, the roof having been blown in, and nearly every window broken. Peter’s fears were, however, soon allayed by ascertaining that Bendigo was at a neighbouring cottage, where he found him between a pair of blankets, and looking quite chapfallen. Bendigo said that he would sooner face three Burkes than pass such another night. He went to bed about nine o’clock, but awoke about eleven, by his bed rocking under him, the wind whistling around him, and the bricks tumbling down the chimney. Every minute he expected the house to fall in upon him, and at three o’clock the hurricane increased so much in violence that he got out of bed, put on his clothes, and made his escape out of the window. He had not left the house ten minutes before the roof was blown in. A knight of the awl kindly gave him shelter, and he has since obtained fresh quarters in the same village.” As the day approached, intense interest prevailed both in London and Liverpool, to say nothing of Nottingham, Birmingham, Derby, and Manchester, all of which towns sent their contingents of amateurs. Jem Ward undertook to give Bendy “the finishing touch,” and reported him “in prime twig,” while Burke was declared by Tommy Roundhead, his faithful red-nosed “secretary” and “esquire,” to be “strong as a rhinoceros and bold as a lion.” At length the eventful morn of Tuesday, the 12th of February, 1839, dawned; it was Shrove Tuesday, and the concourse on all the roads to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, for which the “office” was given, was something more marvellous than that which was occasioned by the “gentle passage of arms” in which Richard Cœur-de-Lion figured, for which see “Ivanhoe.” But we will leave _Bell’s Life_ to tell the further proceedings of the tournament.