Here now thou seest me as a Butcher's Boy,
And sporting with a Dog in Merriment;
Hereafter, thou wilt read the Tricks I play,
Which may afford Thee pleasure and content.
For there's no Robb'ry yet I ere did doe,
But doth contain at least a jest or two.
The horseman whom he thus robbed instantly handed over the ten guineas he was possessed of, and was no doubt bitterly wondering how he was to get home in a penniless state, when Hind courteously returned him one guinea. "This," said he, "is for handsel sake." The watching band of highwaymen marvelled greatly. Here was an intrepid youngster, the coolest hand at robbery, courteously giving back a percentage of his honest earnings. They were witnessing the foundation of a new school in an old art, a school that, although its fit pupils were few and far between, did at least establish a tradition that, while it did not greatly advantage the travelling world, did at least serve to win a long line of highwaymen an amount of forbearance that seems to us moderns almost incredible. The law visited highway robbery with sentences of the utmost ferocity, but individuals, as a general rule, took their losses, not only with an astonishing philosophy, but with a remarkable display of good-nature.
Insult a man, and he may brook it,