Nun does auricular confession, though the priest has a more compassionate character than the hangman. Every man in this community is esteemed according to his particular quality, of which there are several degrees, though it is contrary often to public government; for here a man shall be valued purely for his merit, and rise by it too, though it be but to a halter, in which there is a great deal of glory in dying like a hero, and making a decent figure in the cart to the two last staves of the fifty-first Psalm."* This, we repeat, is the plain statement of a practical man, and again we throw out the hint for adoption. All that we regret is, that we are now degenerated from the grand tobyman to the cracksman and the sneak,† about whom there are no redeeming features. How much lower the next generation of thieves will dive, it boots not to conjecture: Etas Parentum pejor avis tulit, Nos nequiores; mox daturos, "Cervantes laughed Spain's chivalry away," sang Byron; and if Gay did not extinguish the failing flame of our Night Errantry, (unlike the Robbers of Schiller, which is said to have inflamed the Saxon youth with an irrepressible mania for brigandage,) the Beggars' Opera helped not to fan the dying fire. That laugh was fatal as laughs generally are. Macheath gave the highwayman his coup de grace. The last of this race (for we must persist in maintaining that he was the last,) Turpin, like the setting sun, threw up some parting rays of glory, and tinged the far highways with a lustre which may yet be traced like a cloud of dust raised by his horse's retreating heels. Unequalled in the command of his steed, the most singular feat that the whole race of the annals of horsemanship has to record, and of which we may have more to say hereafter, was achieved by him. So perfect was his jockeyship, so clever his management of the animal he mounted, so intimately acquainted was he with every cross road in the neighbourhood of the metropolis (a book of which he constructed, and carried constantly about his person,) as well as with many other parts of England, particularly the counties of Chester, York, and Lancaster, that he cutstripped every pursuer, and baffled all attempts at capture. His reckless daring, his restless rapidity (for so suddenly did he * Memoirs of the Right Villainous John Hall, the famous and notorious robber, penned from his own mouth some time before his death, 1708. † Housebreakers. change his ground, and renew his attacks in other quarters, that he seemed to be endowed with ubiquity,) his bravery, his resolution, and above all, his generosity, won for him a high reputation amongst his compatriots,and even elicited applauses from those upon whom he levied his contributions. Beyond dispute he ruled as master of the road. His hands were, as yet, unstained with blood; he was ever prompt to check the disposition to outrage, and to prevent, as much as lay in his power, the commission of violence by his associates. Of late, since he had possessed himself of his favourite mare, black Bess, his robberies had been perpetrated with a suddenness of succession, and at distances so apparently impracticable, that the idea of all having been executed by one man, was rejected as an impossibility; and the only way of reconciling the description of the horse and rider, which tallied in each instance, was the supposition that these attacks were performed by confederates similarly mounted, and similarly accoutered. There was, in all this, as much of the" fama sacra fames," as of the "auri," of the hungering after distinction, as well as of the appetite of gain. Enamoured of his vocation, Turpin delighted to hear himself designated as the flying Highwayman; and it was with rapturous triumph that he found his single-handed feats attributed to a band of marauders. But this state of things could not long endure; his secret was blown; the vigilance of the police was aroused; he was tracked to his haunts; and after a number of hairbreadth 'scapes, which he only effected by miracle, or by the aid of his wonder-working mare, he reluctantly quitted the heathy hills of Bagshot, the Pampas plains of Hounslow (over which, like an archetype of the galloping Captain Head, he had so often scoured,) the gorsy commons of Highgate, Hampstead, and Finchley, the marshy fields of Battersea, almost all of which he had been known to visit in a single night, and, leaving these beaten tracks to the occupation of younger and less practised hands, he bequeathed to them at the same time his own reversionary interests in the gibbet thereupon erected, and betook himself to the country. After a journey of more or less success, our adventurer found himself at Rookwood, whither he had been invited after a grand field day, by its hospitable and by no means inquisitive owner. Breach of faith and good fellowship formed no part of Turpin's character; he had his lights as well as his shades; and so long as Sir Piers lived, his purse and coffers would have been free from molestation, except 66 so far," Dick said, "as a cog or two of dice went. My dice you know, are longs for odd and even, a bale of bar'd cinque deuces," a pattern of which he always carried with him: beyond this, excepting a take-in at a steeple chase, Rookwood church being the mark, a "do," at a leap, or some such trifle, to which the most scrupulous could not raise an objection, Dick was all fair and above board. But when poor Sir Piers had "put on his wooden surtout," to use Dick's own expressive metaphor, his conscientious feelings evaporated into thin air. Lady Rookwood was nothing to him; there was excellent booty to be "appropriated :" "The wise convey it call." He began to look about for hands; and having accidentally encountered his old comrades, Rust and Wilder, they were led into the business, which was imperfectly accomplished in the manner heretofore described. To return from this digression. When Turpin presented himself at the threshold of the door, on his way to inquire after his mare, to his astonishment he found it closely invested. A cheering shout from the tawny throng, succeeded by a general clapping of hands, and attended by a buzzing susurration of applause, such as welcomes the entrance of a popular actor upon the stage, greeted the appearance of the Highwayman. At the first sight of the crowd, he was a little startled, and involuntarily sought for his pistols; but the demonstrations of admiration were too unequivocal to be for a moment mistaken; his hand was drawn from his pocket, to raise his hat from his brows. Thunders of applause. Turpin's external man, we have before said, was singularly prepossessing. It was especially so in the eyes of the sex, (fair we certainly cannot say upon the present occasion,) amongst whom not a single dissentient voice was to be heard. All concurred in thinking him a fine fellow; could plainly read his high courage in his bearing; his good breeding in his débonnaire deportment; and his manly beauty in his extravagant red whiskers. Dick saw the effect that he produced. He was at home in a moment. Your true highwayman has ever a passion for effect. This does not desert him at the gallows; it rises superior to death itself; and has been known to influence the manner of his dangling from the gibbet! To hear some one cry, "There goes a proper handsome man," saith our previously quoted authority, Jack Hall, "somewhat ameliorates the terrible thoughts of the meagre tyrant death; and to go in a dirty shirt, were enough to save the hangman a labour, and make a man die with grief and shame of being in that deplorable condition." With a gracious smile of condescension, like a popular orator-with a look of blarney like that of O'Connell, and of assurance like that of Hunt, he surveyed the male portion of the spectators, tipped a knowing wink at the prettiest brunettes he could select, and finally cut a sort of fling with his well-booted legs, which brought down another peal of rapturous applause. "A rank scamp!"* cried the Upright Man; and this exclamation, however equivocal it may sound, was intended, on his part, to be highly complimentary. "I believe ye," returned the Ruffler, stroking his chin,"one may see that he's no half swell, by the care with which he cultivates the best gifts of nature, his whiskers. He's a rank nib." 66 "Togged out to the ruffian, no doubt," said the Palliard, who was incomparably the shabbiest rascal in the corps. Though a needy mizzler myself, I likes to see a cove vot's vel dressed. Jist twig his swell kickseys and pipes ; if they ain't the thing, I'm done. Lame Harry can't dance better nor he-no, nor Jerry Juniper neither." "I'm dumb founded," roared the Dummerar, "if he can't patter Romany§ as well as the best on us! He looks like a rum 'un." "And a rum 'un he be, take my word for't," returned the Whip Jack or sham sailor. "Look at his rigging-see how he flashes his sticks-those are the tools to rake a threedecker. He's as clever a craft as I've seen this many a day, or I'm no judge." The women were equally enchantéd-equally eloquent in the expression of their admiration. "What ogles!" cried a mort. "What pins!" said an autem mort, or, married woman. 66 Sharp as needles," said a dark-eyed dell, who had encountered one of the free and frolicsome glances which our Highwayman distributed so liberally amongst the petticoats. It was at this crisis Dick took off his hat. Cæsar betrayed his baldness. "A thousand pities !" cried the men, compassionating his thinly covered skull, and twisting their own ringlets, glossy and luxuriant, though unconscious of Maccassar. "A thousand pities that so fine a fellow should have a sconce like a cocoa nut?" "But then his red whiskers," rejoined the women, tired of the uniformity of thick black heads of hair; "what a warmth of colouring they impart to his face, and then only look how * A famous highwayman. Breeches and boots. How he exposes his pistols. † A real gentleman. flush they are!-how beautifully bushy they make his cheeks appear!" Lady Baussière and the Court of the Queen of Navarre, were not more smitten with the irresistible whiskers of the Sieur de Croix. The hawk's eye of Turpin ranged over the whole assemblage. Amidst that throng of dark faces, there was not one familiar to him. Before him stood the Upright Man, Zoroaster (so was he called,) a sturdy, stalwart rogue, whose superior strength and stature (as has not unfrequently been the case in the infancy of governments that have risen to more importance than is likely to be the case with that of Lesser Egypt) had been the means of his elevation to his present dignified position. Zoroaster literally fought his way upwards, and had at first to maintain his situation by the strong arm; but he now was enabled to repose upon his hard won laurels, to smoke" the calumet of peace," and quaff his tipple with impunity. For one of gipsy blood, he presented an unusual jovial, liquorloving countenance-his eye was mirthful-his lip moist, as if from oft potations-his cheek mellow as an Orleans plum, which fruit, in colour and texture, it mightily resembled. Strange to say, also, for one of that lithe race, his person was heavy and hebetudinous; the consequence, no doubt, of habitual intemperance. Like Crib, he waxed obese upon the championship. There was a kind of mock state in his carriage, as he placed himself before Turpin, and with his left hand twisted up the tail of his dressing gown, while the right thrust his truncheon into his hip, which was infinitely diverting to the Highwayman. Turpin's attention, however, was chiefly directed towards his neighbour, the Ruffler, in whom he recognised a well known impostor of the day, with whose history he was sufficiently well acquainted to be able at once to identify the individual. We have before stated, that a magnificent coal-black beard decorated the chin of this singular character; but this is not all his costume was in perfect keeping with his beard, and consisted of a very theatrical-looking tunic, upon the breast of which was embroidered, in golden wire, the maltese cross; while over his shoulders were thrown the ample folds of a cloak of Tyrian hue. To his side was girt a long and doughty sword, which he called, in his knightly phrase, Excalibur; and upon his profuse hair, rested a hat as broad in the brim as a Spanish sombrero. Exaggerated as this description may appear, we can assure our readers, that it is not overdrawn; and that a counterpart of the sketch we have given of the Ruffler, certainly "strutted |