2.—Both men showed symptoms of the “ditto repeated” in the last round, although no great mischief was done, nor was there much advantage booked, each having given as good as he got. The Deaf ’un resumed his defensive position, and was steady. Bendigo again tried the feint with his left, evidently desirous of leading off with his right, but the Deaf ’un was awake to this dodge, and grinned. The Deaf ’un tried his right, but was stopped. After a pause, during which the men shifted their ground, Bendigo let go his left, but was prettily stopped. He was more successful with his right, and caught the Deaf ’un a stinger under the eye. The straightness and quickness of these right-hand deliveries were now conspicuous. Counter hits, left and right, followed, and the Deaf ’un showed a slight tinge of claret on the mouth, but it was not claimed. The Deaf ’un now made up his mind for a determined rally, and to it they went ding-dong; the stops, hits, and returns, right and left, were severe, and no flinching. Bendigo again wheeled round, but the Deaf ’un was with him, and the rally was renewed with equal vigour and good will. Bendigo, rather wild at the end, closed, and after a sharp struggle, both down. (The Deaf ’un’s chère amie, before alluded to, now cheered him, but, indifferent to her blandishments, he was carried to his corner piping a little from the severity of his exertion. Bendigo, on reaching his corner, seemed freshest, and exhibited less impression from the blows which he had received than his antagonist.)
3.—Both came up strong on their pins, but the Deaf ’un’s face, especially on the left cheek, was greatly flushed, and other marks and tokens of searching deliveries were visible. The Deaf ’un looked serious, and coughed as if the contents of his pudding-bag were not altogether satisfied with the disturbance to which they had been exposed. Sparring for a short time, when Bendigo let go his right, but was stopped; it was a heavy hit, and the sound of the dashing knuckles was distinctly heard. Well-meant blows on both sides stopped. The Deaf ’un again coughed; his “cat’s meat” was clearly out of trim. Again did the Deaf ’un stop Bendigo’s right, but did not attempt to return. He now seemed to gain a little more confidence, and exhibited a few of his hanky-panky tricks, making a sort of Merry Andrew dance; but his jollity was soon stopped, for Bendigo popped in his left and right heavily, and got away. The Deaf ’un changed countenance and was more serious; Bendigo again tried his left-handed feints and was readiest to fight, but the Deaf ’un stood quiet. (Even bets offered on Bendigo.) Bendigo closed in upon his man, who waited on the defensive; but his defensive system was inexplicable, for Bendigo jobbed him four times in succession with the right under the left eye, on the old spot, jumping away each time without an attempt at return on the part of the Deaf ’un, and producing a fearful hillock on the Deaf ’un’s cheek-bone. The Deaf ’un seemed paralysed by the stinging severity of these repeated visitations and his friends called on him to go in and fight. He made an attempt with his right, but was short; at last he rushed to a rally, and some heavy hits were exchanged; Bendigo retreated, but kept hitting on the retreat. The deliveries were rapid and numerous, but those of the Deaf ’un did not tell on the hard frontispiece of his opponent. They broke away, but again joined issue, and the rally was renewed. The jobbing hits, right and left, from Bendigo were terrific, and the Deaf ’un’s nose began to weep blood for the state of his left ogle, which was now fast closing. (The question of first blood was now decided.) Bendigo broke away again, the Deaf ’un following, but Bendigo, collecting himself, jobbed severely, the Deaf ’un apparently no return, and almost standing to receive. He looked round and seemed almost stupefied, but still he kept his legs, when Bendigo went in and repeated his right-handed jobs again and again; he then closed, gave the Deaf ’un the crook, threw him, and fell on him. (The seconds immediately took up their men, and both showed distress, especially the Deaf ’un, who was obviously sick, but could not relieve his stomach, although he tried his finger for that purpose. All were astonished at his sluggishness. He seemed completely bothered, and to have lost all power of reflection and judgment.)
4.—The Deaf ’un now came up all the worse from the effects of the last rattling round, while Bendigo scarcely showed a scratch. The seconds of the Deaf ’un called on him “to go in and fight;” he obeyed the call, but again had Bendigo’s right on his damaged peeper. Bendigo fought on the retreat, hitting as he stepped back, but steadying himself he caught the Deaf ’un on the nose with his right, and sent his pimple flying backwards with the force of the blow. The Deaf ’un rushed in, hitting left and right, and in getting back Bendigo fell over the ropes out of the ring. (The fight had now lasted sixteen minutes; the Deaf ’un had all the worst of it, although Bendigo from his exertions exhibited trifling symptoms of distress.)
5.—The Deaf ’un came up boldly, but all his cleverness seemed to have left him. Bendigo, steady, was first to fight, popping in his right; exchanges followed, and in the close both went down, Burke uppermost.
6.—“Drops of brandy” were tried with the Deaf ’un, but his friends seemed to have “dropped down on their luck.” Still he came up courageously, although his right as well as his left eye was pinked. Counter-hitting, in which Bendigo’s right was on the old spot. A close at the ropes, the Deaf ’un trying for the fall, but after some pulling both went down and no harm done. (Three to one on Bendigo, but no takers.)
7.—The Deaf ’un’s left eye was now as dark as Erebus, and as a last resource he tried the rush; he rattled in to his man without waiting for the attack, but in the close, after an exchange of hits and a severe struggle, was thrown. The moment the Deaf ’un was picked up he cried “Foul!” and asserted that Bendigo had butted him, looking anxiously at the umpire and referee for a decision in his favour; but there was no pretence for the charge, as it was obvious Bendigo merely jerked back his head to relieve himself from his grasp. Like “a drowning man,” however, it was obvious he was anxious to “catch at a straw.”
8.—The Deaf ’un showed woeful punishment in the physog, although not cut. Again did he make a despairing rush, stopping Bendigo’s right, but in the second attempt he was not so fortunate, for Bendigo muzzled, closed, and threw him.
9.—The Deaf ’un’s game was now clearly all but up, for while he showed such prominent proofs of the severity of his antagonist’s visitations to his nob, the latter was but little the worse for wear. The Deaf ’un, however, was determined to cut up well, and again rattled in left and right, Bendigo retreating and jobbing as he followed, and at length hitting him down with a right-handed blow on the pimple. The Deaf ’un, with one hand and one knee on the ground, looked up, but Bendigo stood steadily looking at him, and would not repeat the blow, showing perfect coolness and self-possession.
10, and last.—The Deaf ’un, greatly distressed, still came up with a determination to produce a change if he could by in-fighting. He rushed into his man, hitting left and right, but receiving heavy jobs in return. He forced Bendigo with his back against the ropes, and, as he had him in that position, deliberately butted him twice, when both went down in the struggle for the fall. Jem Ward immediately cried “Foul!” and appealed to the referee, who refused to give any decision till properly appealed to by the umpires. He stepped into the ring, where he was followed by the umpires, when he was again appealed to, and at once declared that Burke had butted, and that therefore Bendigo was entitled to the victory—a judgment in which, it is due to say, the umpire of the Deaf ’un, although anxious to protect his interests, declared in the most honourable manner he must concur. Several of Bendigo’s friends wished no advantage of this departure from the new rules to be taken, foreseeing that a few more rounds must finish the Deaf ’un; but the decision of the referee was imperative, and thus ended a contest which disappointed not only the backers of the Deaf ’un but the admirers of the Ring generally, who anticipated on the Deaf ’un’s part a different issue, or at least a better fight. With regard to the butting, of which we have no doubt, our impression is that it was done intentionally, and for the express purpose of terminating the fight in that way rather than by prolonging it to submit to additional punishment and the mortification of a more decided defeat; and we are the more inclined to this conclusion from the Deaf ’un’s readiness to claim a butt on the part of Bendigo in the seventh round, a convincing proof that he was fully sensible of its nature and consequence. An attempt was subsequently made to wrangle with the referee on the soundness of his decision, for the purpose of sustaining the character of the Deaf ’un, and exciting a spirit of discontent among his backers. This was not creditable, and to be classed among these petty expedients to which some of our modern “Ringsters” are but too willing to have recourse—namely, at all events “to win, tie, or wrangle,” a practice to which every honest man must be opposed. The time occupied in the contest was exactly four-and-twenty minutes. In no one of Burke’s former battles was he more severely punished in the face, not, it is true, in any vital part, for all Bendigo’s hits, both left and right, were as straight as a line, going straight from the shoulder and slap to their destination. There were no round hits on his part, and the body blows on both sides were few and far between.
Remarks.—Perhaps no battle on record offers a stronger illustration of the consequences of vanity and headstrong confidence than that which we have just recorded. Burke, puffed up by his former successes, and flattered by the good-natured freedom of young men of fashion, placed himself beyond the pale of instruction and advice. He was self-willed and obstinate, and quarrelled with all who presumed to guide him in the proper course. His repeated acts of imprudence while in training called forth the strongest remonstrances, but in vain; and thus he has found, when too late, that “a man who will be his own adviser” on such occasions “has a fool for his client.” Nothing but the most decided want of condition can account for the slowness which he exhibited; and, when his career from the time he went to Brighton till the day of the battle is considered, that state of constitution is sufficiently explained; and yet those besotted friends who knew all this were as prejudiced in his favour that they blindly pinned their faith to his former reputation, believed no man alive could beat him, and risked their money, as well as stultified their judgment, on we issue of his exertions. But then say these wiseacres, opening their eyes with well-feigned astonishment, “We could not have erred. It is impossible, seeing all that we have seen, and knowing what we have known of the Deaf ’un that he could have made so bad a fight, and be beaten so hollow by a countryman!” Oh no! this could not be—and what follows? Why, the old story—the honest Deaf ’un has all at once turned rogue—he had been bought and fought a cross!—he has sold his friends, and must be consigned to degradation. Why, from the third round it was seen by the merest tyro in the ring that he had not a chance. He was completely paralysed by the unexpected quickness of his adversary, who has, as Jem Ward foretold, proved himself a better man than has for some years appeared in the ring. This has been Ward’s constant cry, and had his advice been taken all the odds that were offered would have been taken. But no; the Londoners were not to be beaten out of their “propriety.” Twos to one, sevens to four, and sixes to four have, as is well known, been offered over and over again in sporting houses without takers, and many who lamented the impossibility of “getting on” before the fight, have now, after it, the consolation of feeling that they have “got off” most miraculously. And yet this was a cross; and the cunning concoctors of the robbery had the generosity to refuse the hundreds which were, as it were, forced under their noses. Verily this is “going the whole hog” with a vengeance; but from the little we know of such speculations we are inclined to think that those who hazard such an opinion will be deemed greater flats than they have proved themselves. It is an accusation unjust towards a weak, but, we believe, an honest man, and still more unjust towards Bendigo, who, throughout, proved himself, in every respect, a better fighter, as well as a harder hitter, than Burke, and who, in no part of the battle, was guilty of an act which would disentitle him to the honour and profit of his victory. But some facts seem to be altogether lost sight of in forming a just estimate of poor Burke’s pretensions, for, independent of his want of condition, it seems to be forgotten that instead of fighting or sparring for the last two years he has been confining himself to the personification of “the Grecian statues,” forsooth—anything but calculated to give energy to his limbs—added to which he is ruptured. We are also informed on medical authority that the patella or knee-pan of his right leg is as weak from the fracture which he sustained in the hospital some time back that he is obliged to support it by double laced bandages, and he has been altogether precluded from taking strong walking or running exercise, never having walked more than ten miles in any one day of his training. For our own part we think his day is gone by, and, like many other great performers, he has appeared once too often; but that he intentionally deceived his friends we believe to be a most ungenerous calumny, although his friends may have deceived themselves. After the fight, Burke, who was sufficiently well to walk from the ring, returned to Appleby, and from there to “foot-ball kicking” Atherstone, where the annual sports were merrily kept up in his absence. The same night he returned to Coventry, and arrived by the mail train in London the next morning, none the worse in his bodily health from the peppering he received, however mentally he was “down on his luck.” He complained much of his arms, which, from the wrists to the elbows, were covered with bruises, the effects of stopping—and stopping blows, too, which, had they reached their destination, would have expedited his downfall. Bendigo returned to Nottingham the same night, decorated with his well-earned laurels; and it is to be hoped he will enjoy his victory with becoming modesty and civility, bearing in mind that he has yet to conquer Caunt before he can be proclaimed Champion of England.