“‘What got you into trouble?’
“‘An inordinate passion for riding. I always envied people I saw on horseback, and one day as I was loitering about the best part of the town, a gentleman asked me to hold his horse for him, while he entered the house of a friend. I looked upon the request as an insult, and while I held the bridle I ruminated as to the best method of revenge upon the aristocrat who had laid himself open to my resentment. It occurred to me that the best way to punish him would be to rob him of his horse. So seizing an advantageous opportunity, I sprang lightly upon the animal’s back.
“‘I did not know how to ride. The horse found at once that he had a light weight upon him, and he soon discovered, with equine instinct, that I had never been on a horse before. Setting back his ears, the beast bent his legs under him and set off at a quick pace. John Gilpin going to Edmonton must have felt very much as I did.
“‘The horse galloped recklessly and furiously from street to street, and at last landed me in the paternal arms of a blue-coated policeman, who looked after me with the care of a father.
“I was committed for trial, and engaged Mr. Earwig, the celebrated criminal counsel, who did his best for me, and moved the court to tears as he recounted the sad position of this well-connected young man (my father was at the time in Sing Sing gaol for debt, and my mother in the penitentiary owing to a little matter of manslaughter), whose parents were highly respectable.
“‘The misguided youth had given way to a sudden impulse of temptation which led him into the commission of a sin, the enormity of which was regretted by none so much as himself.
“‘At this juncture of the learned barrister’s speech the prosecutor got up, and said he hoped the court would deal leniently with the prisoner.
“‘He was willing to make all the reparation which lay in his power.
“‘The horse had subsequently run up against an omnibus, broken his neck, and damaged sundry pedestrians in his dying struggles, so it may be imagined that I was not able to make much reparation.
“‘The unhappy boy (sobs audible in various parts of the court) narrowly escaped with his life. When he, in an unguarded moment, leaped into the saddle he had no idea that the horse would go on.