upon to fight Anselo Herne, "the Flaming Tinman," who somehow or
other seemed to be part of the bargain he had made with Jack
Slingsby, and encounter the queen of road-girls, Isopel Berners. The
description of the fight has been proclaimed the finest in our
language, and by some the finest in the world's literature.

Isopel Berners is one of the great heroines of English Literature.
As drawn by Borrow, with her strong arm, lion-like courage and tender
tearfulness, she is unique. However true or false the account of her
relations with Borrow may be, she is drawn by him as a living woman.
He was incapable of conceiving her from his imagination. It may go
unquestioned that he actually met an Isopel Berners, {64b} but
whether or no his parting from her was as heart-rendingly tragic as
he has depicted it, is open to very grave question.

With this queen of the roads he seems to have been less reticent and
more himself than with any other of his vagabond acquaintance, not
excepting even Mr Petulengro. To the handsome, tall girl with "the
flaxen hair, which hung down over her shoulders unconfined," and the
"determined but open expression," he showed a more amiable side of
his character; yet he seems to have treated her with no little
cruelty. He told her about himself, how he "had tamed savage mares,
wrestled with Satan, and had dealings with ferocious publishers,"
bringing tears to her eyes, and when she grew too curious, he
administered an antidote in the form of a few Armenian numerals. If
his Autobiography is to be credited, Isopel loved him, and he was
aware of it; but the knowledge did not hinder him from torturing the
poor girl by insisting that she should decline the verb "to love" in
Armenian.