text:  It was on the tenth day of February in the year of our Lord 1685 I was busy with my dear friends the youths under my charge in the Campus Martius (which was a level space of ground in one of the glebe fields by the side of the river whereon we performed our exercises of running jumping wrestling and other athletic exercitations ) when we were startled by the hearing the sound of many horses galloping up the hill above the village; and looking over the hedge on to the road we saw a cavalier going very fast on a fine black horse which had fire in its eyes and nostrils as the poet says followed by a goodly train of serving-men all well mounted and proceeding at the same rate