I had been terribly shaken by my fall, and had subsequently, owing to the incision of the surgeon's lancet, been deprived of much of the vital fluid; it is when the body is in such a state that the merest trifles affect and agitate the mind; no wonder, then, that the return of the surgeon and the master of the house for the purpose of inquiring whether I would sell my horse struck me as being highly extraordinary, considering the hour of the night, and the situation in which they knew me to be.

What could they mean by such conduct--did they wish to cheat me of the animal?
"Well, well," said I, "if they did, what matters, they found their match; yes, yes," said I, "but I am in their power, perhaps"-- but I instantly dismissed the apprehension which came into my mind with a pooh, nonsense! In a little time, however, a far more foolish and chimerical idea began to disturb me--the idea of being flung from my horse; was I not disgraced for ever as a horseman by being flung from my horse?
Assuredly, I thought; and the idea of being disgraced as a horseman, operating on my nervous system, caused me very acute misery.

"After all," said I to myself, "it was perhaps the contemptible opinion which the surgeon must have formed of my equestrian powers, which induced him to offer to take my horse off my hands; he perhaps thought I was unable to manage a horse, and therefore in pity returned in the dead of night to offer to purchase the animal which had flung me;" and then the thought that the surgeon had conceived a contemptible opinion of my equestrian powers caused me the acutest misery, and continued tormenting me until some other idea (I have forgot what it was, but doubtless equally foolish) took possession of my mind.

At length, brought on by the agitation of my spirits, there came over me the same feeling of horror that I had experienced of old when I was a boy, and likewise of late within the dingle; it was, however, not so violent as it had been on those occasions, and I struggled manfully against it, until by degrees it passed away, and then I fell asleep; and in my sleep I had an ugly dream.

I dreamt that I had died of the injuries I had received from my fall, and that no sooner had my soul departed from my body than it entered that of a quadruped, even my own horse in the stable--in a word, I was, to all intents and purposes, my own steed; and as I stood in the stable chewing hay (and I remember that the hay was exceedingly tough), the door opened, and the surgeon who had attended me came in.