276 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



or the blunderbuss loaded with slugs of the travellers 

 whom they boldly bade ' Stand and deliver! ' Many 

 are the anecdotes of the generosity of these knights 

 errant — Turpin, King, and their comrades." 



Speaking of thieves, Shakespeare makes Timon of 

 Athens thus address a thief: 



You must eat men. Yet thanks I must you con 



That you are thieves profess'd ; that you work not 



In holier shapes : for there is boundless theft 



In limited professions. Rascal thieves, 



Here's gold : Go, suck the subtle blood of the grape. 



Till the high fever seeth your blood to froth. 



And so 'scape hanging. Trust not the physician ; 



His antidotes are poison, and he slays 



More than you rob. Take wealth and lives together; 



Do villainy, do, since you profess to do 't, 



Like workmen. I'll example you with thievery : 



The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction 



Robs the vast sea : the moon's an arrant thief, 



And her pale fire she snatches from the sun : 



The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves 



The moon into salt tears : the earth's a thief, 



That feeds and breeds by a composture stolen 



From general excrement : each thing's a thief. 



The laws, your curb and whip, in their rough power 



Have uncheck'd theft. Love not yourselves : away ; 



Rob one another. There's more gold : Cut throats ; 



All that you meet are thieves : To Athens go; 



Break open shops ; nothing can you steal. 



But thieves do lose it : Steal not less, for this 



I give you ; and gold confound you howsoever. 



Timon of Athens, sc. iii. 



Although highwaymen may have robbed in a gallant 

 fashion, and in manner and appearance were often 

 the equals of gentlemen of good birth, yet they were 

 none the less thieves. An old writer on this subject, 

 in the QiLarterly Review, makes the following remark. 

 He says that " it is dangerous to expose vice, lest we 

 contaminate the imaginations of those who are yet 

 innocent and virtuous." And there is no doubt that 



