offered to eat herself, if I would eat the other. They were the gift to
me of her grandmother, as a token of friendship. Incautiously I ate a
portion to please the maiden. She eagerly watched as I did so. But I
paid dearly indeed for my simplicity. I was in a short time seized with
the most painful sensations, and was speedily prostrate in helpless
agonies.

While I was in this alarming condition the grandmother appeared, and
began to taunt me with the utmost malignity. She was Mrs. Herne, "the
hairy one," who had conceived inveterate spite against me at the time
when Petulengro had proposed that I should marry his wife's sister. This
poison had been administered to inflict on me the vengeance she had not
ceased to meditate.

My life was in real peril, but I was fortunately delivered by a timely
and providential interposition. The malignant old gipsy woman and her
granddaughter were scared as they watched my sufferings by hearing the
sound of travellers approaching. Two wayfarers came along, one of whom
happened to be a kind and skillful doctor. He saved my life by drastic
remedies.

The next that I heard of Mrs. Herne was, as Petulengro told me when we
again met, that she had hanged herself, the girl finding her suspended
from a tree. That announcement was accompanied by an unexpected
challenge from my friend Jasper to fight him. He declared that as she
was his relative, and I had been the cause of her destruction, there was
no escape from the necessity of fighting. My plea that there was no
inclination on my part for such a combat was of no avail. Accordingly we
fought for half an hour, when suddenly Petulengro exclaimed: "Brother,
there is much blood on your face; I think enough has been done in the