conviction, that he and two others broke into the
house of a gentleman near Hampton Court. While
they were in the act of plundering it, a large
black Cat flew at one of the robbers, and fixed her
claws on each side of his face. He added, that
he never saw any man so much frightened in his life? [1]
We know not whether we should attribute to the force of personal or local attachment, the incident recorded in the following anecdote, by the same amiable author, which, marvellous as it is, he assures us, needs not be doubted. "A lady, residing at Glasgow, had a handsome Cat sent to her from Edinburgh; it was conveyed to her in a close basket, and in a carriage. The animal was carefully watched for two months; but, having produced a pair of young ones at the end of that time, she was left to her own discretion, which she very soon employed in disappearing with both her kittens. The lady at Glasgow wrote to her friend at Edinburgh, deploring her loss; and the Cat was supposed to have formed some new attachment. About a fortnight, however, after her disappearance from Glasgow, her well-known mew was heard at the street-door of her Edinburgh mistress, and there she was with both her kittens; they in the best state, but she herself very thin. It is clear that she could only carry one kitten at a time. The distance from Glasgow to Edinburgh is forty-four miles, so that if she brought one kitten part of the way, and then went back for the other, and thus conveyed them alternately, she must have travelled one hundred and twenty miles, at least. She must also have
- ↑ Gleanings, p. 319.
