ANECDOTE OF A HIGHWAYMAN. 277 



not the least notice of anything that is doing.'* The key of the 

 portmanteau was produced, the cords and straps divided with a 

 knife, and three hundred guineas, in two yellow canvass bags 

 were conveyed to the pockets of the highwayman. Having 

 amply supplied his pecuniary wants, the marauder did not 

 neglect to take the necessary means for insuring his own safety; 

 cutting pieces from the cord which had secured the baggage, he 

 tied the hands and feet of the gentleman and the post-boy, placed 

 them in the chaise, then taking the harness from the horses, he 

 let them loose on the heath, remounted, and quickly rejomed 

 the clergyman, to whom he gave a circumstantial account of the 

 whole transaction, declared himself confirmed in his system, 

 spurred his horse, and wishing him a good night, was in a few 

 minutes out of his sight. The old gentleman soon reached his 

 house, reflecting with a heavy heart on the circumstances of the 

 evening; the stranger so obstinately persisting in a theory so 

 opposite to all laws, human and divine, and defending violence 

 by argument, disordered his feelings, and kept him awake more 

 than half the night. Rising early, he walked to the seat of his 

 brother, a magistrate, who resided in a neighbouring village, to 

 whom he related the adventure of the preceding night. They 

 resolved, assiss ted by a gentleman who presided at one of the 

 public offices, to whom the ecclesiastic immediately wrote, to 

 watch the progress of the unhappy man, whose destruction they 

 saw was certain. It was not long before w^hat they dreaded 

 came to pass ; in a few posts they received a letter from their 

 friend in London, informing then), that by means of one of the 

 bank-notes in the pocket-book, the robber had been detected, 

 taken into custody, and conveyed to prison. So vigorous indeed 

 were the means pursued, and so rapid the march of justice, in 

 consequence of the Judges of the Assize being sitting at the 

 moment of the offender's apprehension, that an indictment wns 

 prepared, the bill found, and the culprit actually arraigned at 

 the bar, by the time the cle/gynian was able to reach town. lie 

 hurried into court, anxious to be convinced that the prisoner ;!.t 

 th« bar was the companion of his nocturnal journey, in whose 

 fate he felt himself so strangely interested. Pressing with some 

 difficulty through the crowd he instantly recognised him, and, to 

 add to the sorrow he felt, a verdi'ct of guilty, in consequence of 

 evidence which it was impossible to resist, was pronounced 

 against him, at the moment of entering. The worthy priest wa» 

 not able to suppress or conceal his eaiotions at bthoKling a 



