30 COACHING. 



not gone many miles before they came to a 

 most secluded spot, where four cross roads 

 met: the new-laid earth round the fing^er- 

 post, and a gibbet at some little distance, 

 with a skeleton body suspended in chains to 

 it, showed that two human beings had met 

 with ignominious deaths. They had been com- 

 panions in crime, and in robbing the Mail the 

 guard had been killed. 



An offer of a free pardon and two hundred 

 pounds reward had been proclaimed, when one 

 of the wretches, actuated by vile lucre, turned 

 King's evidence, and sacrificed his friend. 

 Although he had taken part in the robbery, 

 as he did not fire the fatal shot, his pardon was 

 granted and the blood money awarded him. On 

 the morning of the execution of his partner 

 in guilt, remorse seized hold of the informer, 

 and by his own hand he rid the country of a 

 villain. 



The two travellers, who, I ought to say, 

 had met accidentally at an inn, reached the 

 spot I have described ; the wind whistled across 

 the heath — the chains of the gibbet clanked, the 

 birds of carrion hovered over the new-made 

 grave, in which the suicide had been buried, and 

 the body of the murderer dangled in the air. 



