One day while walking down the Strand, he
put out his arms as if in the act of swimming, and in so doing touched
a passer-by. The man, taking him for a thief, seized him, crying,
"What, so young and so wicked!" "I am not a pickpocket," replied the
boy; "I only thought I was Leander swimming the Hellespont!" After
making some inquiries, his chance acquaintance subscribed to a library
for him, and the story runs that in a short time the young bookworm had
read "right through the catalogue."
In 1791 Coleridge entered Cambridge University. While there he was
deeply stirred by events in France--for the Revolution was in
progress--and ran some risk of being expelled by the open expression of
his radical views on politics. His fine ode, _France_, written several
years later, was the expression of this intense interest. During his
second year of study, while suffering from a fit of despondency, he
suddenly left the university--just why, no one knows--and went to
London. There he enlisted in the 15th dragoons under the name of Silas
Tompkyn Comberback. While he was in the service his awkwardness in
doing manual labor, especially in grooming his horse, led to his
exchanging tasks with his comrades: they performed his mechanical
duties, while he wrote letters for them to their wives or sweethearts.
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