The
terrible Thurtell was present, lord of the concourse; for wherever he
moved he was master, and whenever he spoke, even when in chains, every
other voice was silent. He stood on the mead, grim and pale as usual,
with his bruisers around. He it was, indeed, who _got up_ the fight, as
he had previously done twenty others; it being his frequent boast that he
had first introduced bruising and bloodshed amidst rural scenes, and
transformed a quiet slumbering town into a den of Jews and metropolitan
thieves. Some time before the commencement of the combat, three men,
mounted on wild-looking horses, came dashing down the road in the
direction of the meadow, in the midst of which they presently showed
themselves, their horses clearing the deep ditches with wonderful
alacrity. 'That's Gypsy Will and his gang,' lisped a Hebrew pickpocket;
'we shall have another fight.' The word Gypsy was always sufficient to
excite my curiosity, and I looked attentively at the new-comers.
I have seen Gypsies of various lands, Russian, Hungarian, and Turkish;
and I have also seen the legitimate children of most countries of the
world; but I never saw, upon the whole, three more remarkable
individuals, as far as personal appearance was concerned, than the three
English Gypsies who now presented themselves to my eyes on that spot. Two
of them had dismounted, and were holding their horses by the reins. The
tallest, and, at the first glance, the most interesting of the two, was
almost a giant, for his height could not have been less than six feet
three.
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