Taking a circuitous course and putting his mare to a hand-gallop, Wicks was already waiting the landlord at the edge of a dark pond on a lonely stretch of road, when the old man rode by. In that situation, as the shades of night were falling, he robbed him of the rent and of as much beside, which he later kept for his honest brokerage, after making the widow a present of the original amount. Hastening back to the cottage, he had already resumed the rustic clothes and was seated in the chimney corner, when a knocking came at the door. It was the landlord returning to tell the story of his woes. He said he had been robbed by a rogue in a lace coat, who swore a thousand oaths at him.
"I told you how unsafe it was," said Wicks, from his corner; "but you would not take my advice."
The landlord begged leave to stay the night, and went the following morning upon his way.
The obvious criticism of this is that, having already been robbed, his best and safest course would have been to make haste on his way home, the remainder of the journey, without turning back.
Ned Wicks one day met Lord Mohun on the road between Windsor and Colnbrook, attended by only a groom and a footman. He commanded his lordship to "stand and deliver!" for he was in great want of money, and money he would have, before they parted company. Lord Mohun, a noted bully and rustler of that age, proposed that, if the highwayman was so insistent, they should fight for it, and Wicks very readily accepted this proposal; whereupon, my lord, seeing him busily preparing his pistols for the engagement, began to back out of the bargain. Wicks, perceiving this, said contemptuously: "All the world knows me to be a man, and such a man am I that, although your lordship could, in a cowardly manner, murder Mumford the actor, and Captain Cout, I am by no means afraid of you. Therefore, since you will not fight, I order you to down with your gold, or expect no quarter!"
Thus meeting with more than his match, Lord Mohun fell into a passionate fit of swearing. "My lord," said Wicks, when he could get a word in edgeways, "I perceive you swear perfectly well, extempore: come, I'll give your honour a fair chance for your money, and that is, he that swears best of us two shall keep his own, and the money of he who loses as well."
My lord, an expert in this line, through long cursing over losses at cards, eagerly agreed to this new bargain, and threw down a purse of fifty guineas. Wicks staked a like sum, and the competition started.
After a quarter of an hour's prodigious swearing on both sides, it was left to his lordship's groom to declare the winner.
He said: "Why, my lord, your honour swears as well as ever I heard any Person of Quality in my life; but, indeed, to give the Strange Gentleman his due, he has done better than yourself, and has won the wager, even if it were for a thousand pounds."