Whereat they fled with mock squeals, calling out that the very thought made them blush: and left me to dress.
Downstairs I found a giant’s breakfast spread for me, and ate the hole, and felt the better for it: and thereupon paid my scot, resisting the landlady’s endeavor to charge me double for the bed, and walked out to see the town.
“Take care o’ thysel’,” the chambermaid bawled after me; “nor flourish thy attainments abroad, lest they put thee in a show!”
Dark was coming on fast: and to my chagrin (for I had intended purchasing a horse) the buying and selling of the fair were over, the cattle-pens broken up, and the dealers gather’d round the fiddlers, ballad singers, and gingerbread stalls. There were gaming booths, too, driving a brisk trade at Shovel-board, All-fours, and Costly Colors; and an eating tent, whence issued a thick reek of cooking and loud rattle of plates. Over the entrance, I remember, was set a notice: “Dame Alloway from Bartholomew Fair. Here are the best geese, and she does them as well as ever she did.” I jostled my way along, keeping tight hold on my pockets, for fear of cut-purses; when presently, about halfway down the street, there arose the noise of shouting. The crowd made a rush toward it; and in a minute I was left alone, standing before a juggler who had a sword halfway down his throat, and had to draw it out again before he could with any sufficiency curse the defection of his audience; but offered to pull out a tooth for me if I wanted it.
I left him, and running after the crowd soon learn’d the cause of this tumult.
’Twas a meagre old rascal that someone had charged with picking pockets: and they were dragging him off to be duck’d. Now in the heart of Wantage the little stream that runs through the town is widen’d into a cistern about ten feet square, and five in depth, over which hung a ducking stool for scolding wives. And since the townspeople draw their water from this cistern, ’tis to be supposed they do not fear the infection. A long beam on a pivot hangs out over the pool, and to the end is a chair fasten’d; into which, despite his kicks and screams, they now strapped this poor wretch, whose grey locks might well have won mercy for him.
Souse! he was plunged: hauled up choking and dripping: then—just as he found tongue to shriek—souse! again.
’Twas a dismal punishment; and this time they kept him under for a full half minute. But as the beam was lifted again, I heard a hullaballoo and a cry—
“The bear! the bear!”
And turning, I saw a great brown form lumbering down the street behind, and driving the people before it like chaff.