Jeffreys reminding him that a Providence existed which governed the world, and that he might therefore expect to be duly punished for his iniquities, he held forth in his best pulpit style: "When justice has overtaken us both, I hope to stand as good a chance as your lordship, you, who have written your name in indelible characters of blood and deprived many thousands of their lives, for no other reason than their appearing in defence of their just rights and liberties. It is enough for you to preach morality upon the Bench, when no person can venture to contradict you; but your words can have no effect upon me. I know you too well not to perceive that they are only lavished upon me to save your ill-gotten wealth." Then, his eloquence in this vein being exhausted, thundering forth a volley of oaths, and presenting a pistol to his breast, he threatened the judge with instant death, unless he surrendered his money. Perceiving that his authority was of no consequence to him upon the road, Judge Jeffreys thereupon handed over the gold he had about him, amounting to fifty-six guineas.
To recount the many improbable stories told of Old Mob, singly, or in conjunction with his sometime ally, the "Golden Farmer," would be to tell many stupid tales, and to convict oneself of credulity. He was caught at last, and, being convicted on thirty-four out of thirty-six indictments, was duly hanged, with nine others, September 12th, 1691. He declared, on the scaffold, that "while he continued to Rob on the Highway, he pray'd at the same Time that God would forgive it, and that it eas'd his mind something." It was added that "though he had wounded several Persons, yet he affirm'd he never murder'd any; which, to be sure, was very forbearing and obliging of him."
CLAUDE DU VALL
Claude Du Vall ranks among his brother highwaymen as high as Rembrandt or Raphael among artists. He was, indeed, no less an artist in his own profession than they. He might not, and probably did not, acquire as much of other people's property on the road as did Hind or Whitney; but artists are not necessarily money-makers. Such as were his takings, he took them with a finished grace and a considerate courtesy, that not even the Prince of Prigs, in his best moment, ever quite attained. We do not learn, for example, that Hind, the "Gentleman Thief," footed it on the heath in a graceful dance with one of his victims, as did Du Vall; but Hind had not the advantage of that foreign blood which made Claude skip for gladness in the midst of alarms.
In the Memoires of Monsieur Du Vall, published in 1670, only a few days after the hero's death from the effect of a hempen cravat, we have the sole authority for the merry tales told of him. It is a curious production. From it we learn that:
"Claude Du Vall was born Anno 1643 at Domfront, in Normandy, a place very famous for the excellency and beautifulness of the air, and for the production of mercurial wits. At the time of his birth there was a conjunction of Venus and Mercury, certain presages of very good fortune, but of a very short continuance. His father was Pierre Du Vall, a miller, his mother, Marguerite De la Roche, a tailor's daughter."
The author of these remarkable memoirs then proceeds to say, in surely a very cynical manner: "They lived in as much reputation and honesty as their conditions and occupations would permit." This, of course, is a sly fling at both the business of a miller and that of a tailor; for honest millers have from the earliest times been proverbially as scarce as honest lawyers; while for tailors to "cabbage" the cloth entrusted to them has always been expected.