I ran so fiercely, that I shoved his head so violently against the board rais’d at the end of the bench, that I made his neck double; the knock likewise had like to have turn’d that little brains he had within his head. As for my own part, I thought that his foot had run quite into my belly, and that pulling it out he had left his shooe behind. Before I could rise, I had three or four about me, which I thought would have limbed me, as boys falling out do their cocks on _Shrove-Tuesday_. At that time I would have spared them one limb, provided that would have contented them. But there was no mercy to be had at their hands, especially the shrill note of their Mistresses perpetually moving Tongue, sounding a charge in their ears. Being tyred with me, they would be revenged of my cloaths. They would have stript me (I think stark naked) for my Reckoning, but that one said, _Let his Cloak suffice_; at which, another pulled so furiously at it, that miraculously, without rending that thin transparent garment, he got it all but the cape. In this condition I was brought before my new Landlady; I asked her what was to pay? _Sirrah_ (said she) _more then thou hast in thy Pocket_; (2 s. 4 d.) As well as I could speak, I demanded how it came to be so much. _Why_, (said she) _there is for Beef _1 s._ for Bread _4 d._ six pipes of Tobacco, and three pots of Ale; all this thou hadst in less then half an hour._ I would not contradict her, though I knew it was near an hour; I desired her to keep my Cloak for the reckoning, but durst not threaten her for her abuse. Being about Hay-making time, I walked out into the Fields, resolving to spend that night in contemplation. I had now time to _consider_ the damage I sustained in this skirmish: they had carried away all my Ribbands with their fingers, otherwise my cloaths received the least harm. My Nose resembled a black pudding before it is boyled, and my Eyes were fled into my head for fear of such melancholy meat. My Cheeks were so puft up with swelling pride, that they were resolved to close up the portals of my Opticks, that they might not be eye-witnesses of the height of their ambition. My Ears were so maulled with their fleshy Hammers, that I heard a peal within my head for joy, I suppose, that my eyes had taken up their residence within my brains. At last I felt something about my shoulders; at first I thought it had been the weight of the blows, but feeling, found it a part of my friend that still hung about my neck, and would not leave me; which put me in minde of that faithful Cloak that would never leave its Master, although his Master had attempted all ways imaginable to leave it. I must needs say, I loved my Cloak so well, as that it grieved me much to be compelled to part with it. It had been a servant to servants, ever since the setting up of the first Billiard-table, whence it deriv’d its Pedegree. Being deprived of its imployment, and dipossest of its antient habitation, its