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diff --git a/1632.txt b/1632.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..75a12f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/1632.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5649 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Book of Scoundrels, by Charles Whibley + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Book of Scoundrels + +Author: Charles Whibley + +Release Date: February 21, 2006 [EBook #1632] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF SCOUNDRELS *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer and David Widger + + + + + +A BOOK OF SCOUNDRELS + +By Charles Whibley + + + + +To the Greeks FOOLISHNESS + + + +I desire to thank the Proprietors of the 'National Observer,' the +'New Review,' the 'Pall Mall Gazette,' and 'Macmillan's Magazine,' for +courteous permission to reprint certain chapters of this book. + + + +CONTENTS + + INTRODUCTION + + CAPTAIN HIND + + MOLL CUTPURSE AND JONATHAN WILD + I. MOLL CUTPURSE + II. JONATHAN WILD + III. A PARALLEL + + RALPH BRISCOE + + GILDEROY AND SIXTEEN-STRING JACK + I. GILDEROY + II. SIXTEEN-STRING JACK + III. A PARALLEL + + THOMAS PURENEY + + SHEPPARD AND CARTOUCHE + I. JACK SHEPPARD + II. LOUIS-DOMINIQUE CARTOUCHE + III. A PARALLEL + + VAUX + + GEORGE BARRINGTON + + THE SWITCHER AND GENTLEMAN HARRY + I. THE SWITCHER + II. GENTLEMAN HARRY + III. A PARALLEL + + DEACON BRODIE AND CHARLES PEACE + I. DEACON BRODIE + II. CHARLES PEACE + III. A PARALLEL + + THE MAN IN THE GREY SUIT + + MONSIEUR L'ABBE + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +There are other manifestations of greatness than to relieve suffering or +to wreck an empire. Julius Caesar and John Howard are not the only heroes +who have smiled upon the world. In the supreme adaptation of means to an +end there is a constant nobility, for neither ambition nor virtue is +the essential of a perfect action. How shall you contemplate with +indifference the career of an artist whom genius or good guidance +has compelled to exercise his peculiar skill, to indulge his finer +aptitudes? A masterly theft rises in its claim to respect high above the +reprobation of the moralist. The scoundrel, when once justice is quit +of him, has a right to be appraised by his actions, not by their +effect; and he dies secure in the knowledge that he is commonly more +distinguished, if he be less loved, than his virtuous contemporaries. + +While murder is wellnigh as old as life, property and the pocket +invented theft, late-born among the arts. It was not until avarice +had devised many a cunning trick for the protection of wealth, until +civilisation had multiplied the forms of portable property, that +thieving became a liberal and an elegant profession. True, in pastoral +society, the lawless man was eager to lift cattle, to break down the +barrier between robbery and warfare. But the contrast is as sharp +between the savagery of the ancient reiver and the polished performance +of Captain Hind as between the daub of the pavement and the perfection +of Velasquez. + +So long as the Gothic spirit governed Europe, expressing itself in +useless ornament and wanton brutality, the more delicate crafts had +no hope of exercise. Even the adventurer upon the road threatened his +victim with a bludgeon, nor was it until the breath of the Renaissance +had vivified the world that a gentleman and an artist could face the +traveller with a courteous demand for his purse. But the age which +witnessed the enterprise of Drake and the triumph of Shakespeare knew +also the prowess of the highwayman and the dexterity of the cutpurse. +Though the art displayed all the freshness and curiosity of the +primitives, still it was art. With Gamaliel Ratsey, who demanded a +scene from Hamlet of a rifled player, and who could not rob a Cambridge +scholar without bidding him deliver an oration in a wood, theft +was already better than a vulgar extortion. Moll Cutpurse, whose +intelligence and audacity were never bettered, was among the bravest of +the Elizabethans. Her temperament was as large and as reckless as +Ben Jonson's own. Neither her tongue nor her courage knew the curb of +modesty, and she was the first to reduce her craft to a set of wise and +imperious rules. She it was who discovered the secret of discipline, +and who insisted that every member of her gang should undertake no other +enterprise than that for which nature had framed him. Thus she made easy +the path for that other hero, of whom you are told that his band was +made up 'of several sorts of wicked artists, of whom he made several +uses, according as he perceived which way every man's particular talent +lay.' This statesman--Thomas Dun was his name--drew up for the use of +his comrades a stringent and stately code, and he was wont to deliver +an address to all novices concerning the art and mystery of robbing +upon the highway. Under auspices so brilliant, thievery could not but +flourish, and when the Stuarts sat upon the throne it was already lifted +above the level of questioning experiment. + +Every art is shaped by its material, and with the variations of its +material it must perforce vary. If the skill of the cutpurse compelled +the invention of the pocket, it is certain that the rare difficulties +of the pocket created the miraculous skill of those crafty fingers which +were destined to empty it. And as increased obstacles are perfection's +best incentive, a finer cunning grew out of the fresh precaution. +History does not tell us who it was that discovered this new continent +of roguery. Those there are who give the credit to the valiant Moll +Cutpurse; but though the Roaring Girl had wit to conceive a thousand +strange enterprises, she had not the hand to carry them out, and the +first pickpocket must needs have been a man of action. Moreover, her +nickname suggests the more ancient practice, and it is wiser to yield +the credit to Simon Fletcher, whose praises are chanted by the early +historians. + +Now, Simon, says his biographer, was 'looked upon to be the greatest +artist of his age by all his contemporaries.' The son of a baker +in Rosemary Lane, he early deserted his father's oven for a life of +adventure; and he claims to have been the first collector who, stealing +the money, yet left the case. The new method was incomparably more +subtle than the old: it afforded an opportunity of a hitherto unimagined +delicacy; the wielders of the scissors were aghast at a skill which put +their own clumsiness to shame, and which to a previous generation would +have seemed the wildest fantasy. Yet so strong is habit, that even +when the picking of pockets was a recognised industry, the superfluous +scissors still survived, and many a rogue has hanged upon the Tree +because he attempted with a vulgar implement such feats as his unaided +forks had far more easily accomplished. + +But, despite the innovation of Simon Fletcher, the highway was the glory +of Elizabeth, the still greater glory of the Stuarts. 'The Lacedaemonians +were the only people,' said Horace Walpole, 'except the English who seem +to have put robbery on a right foot.' And the English of the seventeenth +century need fear the rivalry of no Lacedaemonian. They were, indeed, +the most valiant and graceful robbers that the world has ever known. +The Civil War encouraged their profession, and, since many of them had +fought for their king, a proper hatred of Cromwell sharpened their wits. +They were scholars as well as gentlemen; they tempered their sport with +a merry wit; their avarice alone surpassed their courtesy; and they +robbed with so perfect a regard for the proprieties that it was only the +pedant and the parliamentarian who resented their interference. + +Nor did their princely manner fail of its effect upon their victims. The +middle of the seventeenth century was the golden age, not only of the +robber, but of the robbed. The game was played upon either side with a +scrupulous respect for a potent, if unwritten, law. Neither might nor +right was permitted to control the issue. A gaily attired, superbly +mounted highwayman would hold up a coach packed with armed men, and take +a purse from each, though a vigorous remonstrance might have carried him +to Tyburn. But the traveller knew his place: he did what was expected of +him in the best of tempers. Who was he that he should yield in courtesy +to the man in the vizard? As it was monstrous for the one to discharge +his pistol, so the other could not resist without committing an outrage +upon tradition. One wonders what had been the result if some mannerless +reformer had declined his assailant's invitation and drawn his sword. +Maybe the sensitive art might have died under this sharp rebuff. But +none save regicides were known to resist, and their resistance was never +more forcible than a volley of texts. Thus the High-toby-crack swaggered +it with insolent gaiety, knowing no worse misery than the fear of the +Tree, so long as he followed the rules of his craft. But let a touch of +brutality disgrace his method, and he appealed in vain for sympathy or +indulgence. The ruffian, for instance, of whom it is grimly recorded +that he added a tie-wig to his booty, neither deserved nor received the +smallest consideration. Delivered to justice, he speedily met the death +his vulgarity merited, and the road was taught the salutary lesson that +wigs were as sacred as trinkets hallowed by association. + +With the eighteenth century the highway fell upon decline. No doubt in +its silver age, the century's beginning, many a brilliant deed was done. +Something of the old policy survived, and men of spirit still went upon +the pad. But the breadth of the ancient style was speedily forgotten; +and by the time the First George climbed to the throne, robbery +was already a sordid trade. Neither side was conscious of its noble +obligation. The vulgar audacity of a bullying thief was suitably +answered by the ungracious, involuntary submission of the terrified +traveller. From end to end of England you might hear the cry of 'Stand +and deliver.' Yet how changed the accent! The beauty of gesture, the +deference of carriage, the ready response to a legitimate demand--all +the qualities of a dignified art were lost for ever. As its professors +increased in number, the note of aristocracy, once dominant, was +silenced. The meanest rogue, who could hire a horse, might cut a +contemptible figure on Bagshot Heath, and feel no shame at robbing +a poor man. Once--in that Augustan age, whose brightest ornament +was Captain Hind--it was something of a distinction to be decently +plundered. A century later there was none so humble but he might be +asked to empty his pocket. In brief, the blight of democracy was upon +what should have remained a refined, secluded art; and nowise is the +decay better illustrated than in the appreciation of bunglers, whose +exploits were scarce worth a record. + +James Maclaine, for instance, was the hero of his age. In a history +of cowards he would deserve the first place, and the 'Gentleman +Highwayman,' as he was pompously styled, enjoyed a triumph denied to +many a victorious general. Lord Mountford led half White's to do him +honour on the day of his arrest. On the first Sunday, which he spent in +Newgate, three thousand jostled for entrance to his cell, and the +poor devil fainted three times at the heat caused by the throng of his +admirers. So long as his fate hung in the balance, Walpole could not +take up his pen without a compliment to the man, who claimed to have +robbed him near Hyde Park. Yet a more pitiful rascal never showed the +white feather. Not once was he known to take a purse with his own hand, +the summit of his achievement being to hold the horses' heads while his +accomplice spoke with the passengers. A poltroon before his arrest, in +Court he whimpered and whinnied for mercy; he was carried to the cart +pallid and trembling, and not even his preposterous finery availed to +hearten him at the gallows. Taxed with his timidity, he attempted to +excuse himself on the inadmissible plea of moral rectitude. 'I have as +much personal courage in an honourable cause,' he exclaimed in a passage +of false dignity, 'as any man in Britain; but as I knew I was committing +acts of injustice, so I went to them half loth and half consenting; and +in that sense I own I am a coward indeed.' + +The disingenuousness of this proclamation is as remarkable as its +hypocrisy. Well might he brag of his courage in an honourable cause, +when he knew that he could never be put to the test. But what palliation +shall you find for a rogue with so little pride in his art, that he +exercised it 'half loth, half consenting'? It is not in this recreant +spirit that masterpieces are achieved, and Maclaine had better have +stayed in the far Highland parish, which bred him, than have attempted +to cut a figure in the larger world of London. His famous encounter with +Walpole should have covered him with disgrace, for it was ignoble at +every point; and the art was so little understood, that it merely added +a leaf to his crown of glory. Now, though Walpole was far too well-bred +to oppose the demand of an armed stranger, Maclaine, in defiance of +his craft, discharged his pistol at an innocent head. True, he wrote +a letter of apology, and insisted that, had the one pistol-shot proved +fatal, he had another in reserve for himself. But not even Walpole would +have believed him, had not an amiable faith given him an opportunity for +the answering quip: 'Can I do less than say I will be hanged if he is?' + +As Maclaine was a coward and no thief, so also he was a snob and no +gentleman. His boasted elegance was not more respectable than his art. +Fine clothes are the embellishment of a true adventurer; they hang ill +on the sloping shoulders of a poltroon. + +And Maclaine, with all the ostensible weaknesses of his kind, would +claim regard for the strength that he knew not. He occupied a costly +apartment in St. James's Street; his morning dress was a crimson damask +banjam, a silk shag waistcoat, trimmed with lace, black velvet breeches, +white silk stockings, and yellow morocco slippers; but since his +magnificence added no jot to his courage, it was rather mean than +admirable. Indeed, his whole career was marred by the provincialism of +his native manse. + +And he was the adored of an intelligent age; he basked a few brief weeks +in the noonday sun of fashion. + +If distinction was not the heritage of the Eighteenth Century, its glory +is that now and again a giant raised his head above the stature of a +prevailing rectitude. The art of verse was lost in rhetoric; the noble +prose, invented by the Elizabethans, and refined under the Stuarts, was +whittled away to common sense by the admirers of Addison and Steele. +Swift and Johnson, Gibbon and Fielding, were apparitions of strength +in an amiable, ineffective age. They emerged sudden from the impeccable +greyness, to which they afforded an heroic contrast. So, while the +highway drifted--drifted to a vulgar incompetence, the craft was +illumined by many a flash of unexpected genius. The brilliant +achievements of Jonathan Wild and of Jack Sheppard might have relieved +the gloom of the darkest era, and their separate masterpieces make some +atonement for the environing cowardice and stupidity. Above all, the +Eighteenth Century was Newgate's golden age; now for the first time and +the last were the rules and customs of the Jug perfectly understood. +If Jonathan the Great was unrivalled in the art of clapping his enemies +into prison, if Jack the Slip-string was supreme in the rarer art of +getting himself out, even the meanest criminal of his time knew what +was expected of him, so long as he wandered within the walled yard, or +listened to the ministrations of the snuff-besmirched Ordinary. He might +show a lamentable lack of cleverness in carrying off his booty; he might +prove a too easy victim to the wiles of the thief-catcher; but he never +fell short of courage, when asked to sustain the consequences of his +crime. + +Newgate, compared by one eminent author to a university, by another to +a ship, was a republic, whose liberty extended only so far as its iron +door. While there was no liberty without, there was licence within; and +if the culprit, who paid for the smallest indiscretion with his neck, +understood the etiquette of the place, he spent his last weeks in an +orgie of rollicking lawlessness. He drank, he ate, he diced; he +received his friends, or chaffed the Ordinary; he attempted, through +the well-paid cunning of the Clerk, to bribe the jury; and when every +artifice had failed he went to Tyburn like a man. If he knew not how to +live, at least he would show a resentful world how to die. + +'In no country,' wrote Sir T. Smith, a distinguished lawyer of the time, +'do malefactors go to execution more intrepidly than in England'; and +assuredly, buoyed up by custom and the approval of their fellows, Wild's +victims made a brave show at the gallows. Nor was their bravery the +result of a common callousness. They understood at once the humour and +the delicacy of the situation. Though hitherto they had chaffed the +Ordinary, they now listened to his exhortation with at least a semblance +of respect; and though their last night upon earth might have been +devoted to a joyous company, they did not withhold their ear from the +Bellman's Chant. As twelve o'clock approached--their last midnight upon +earth--they would interrupt the most spirited discourse, they would +check the tour of the mellowest bottle to listen to the solemn doggerel. +'All you that in the condemn'd hole do lie,' groaned the Bellman of +St. Sepulchre's in his duskiest voice, and they who held revel in +the condemned hole prayed silence of their friends for the familiar +cadences: + + All you that in the condemn'd hole do lie, + Prepare you, for to-morrow you shall die, + Watch all and pray, the hour is drawing near, + That you before th' Almighty must appear. + Examine well yourselves, in time repent + That you may not t' eternal flames be sent; + And when St. Pulchre's bell to-morrow tolls, + The Lord above have mercy on your souls. + Past twelve o'clock! + +Even if this warning voice struck a momentary terror into their +offending souls, they were up betimes in the morning, eager to pay their +final debt. Their journey from Newgate to Tyburn was a triumph, and +their vanity was unabashed at the droning menaces of the Ordinary. At +one point a chorus of maidens cast wreaths upon their way, or pinned +nosegays in their coats, that they might not face the executioner +unadorned. At the Crown Tavern they quaffed their last glass of ale, and +told the landlord with many a leer and smirk that they would pay him on +their way back. Though gravity was asked, it was not always given; but +in the Eighteenth Century courage was seldom wanting. To the common +citizen a violent death was (and is) the worst of horrors; to the +ancient highwayman it was the odd trick lost in the game of life. And +the highwayman endured the rope, as the practised gambler loses his +estate, without blenching. One there was, who felt his leg tremble in +his own despite: wherefore he stamped it upon the ground so violently, +that in other circumstances he would have roared with pain, and he left +the world without a tremor. In this spirit Cranmer burnt his recreant +right hand, and in either case the glamour of a unique occasion was a +stimulus to courage. + +But not even this brilliant treatment of accessories availed to save the +highway from disrepute; indeed, it had become the profitless pursuit +of braggarts and loafers, long before the abolition of the stage-coach +destroyed its opportunity. In the meantime, however, the pickpocket was +master of his trade. His strategy was perfect, his sleight of hand as +delicate as long, lithe fingers and nimble brains could make it. He had +discarded for ever those clumsy instruments whose use had barred the +progress of the Primitives. The breast-pocket behind the tightest +buttoned coat presented no difficulty to his love of research, and he +would penetrate the stoutest frieze or the lightest satin, as easily as +Jack Sheppard made a hole through Newgate. His trick of robbery was +so simple and yet so successful, that ever since it has remained a +tradition. The collision, the victim's murmured apology, the hasty +scuffle, the booty handed to the aide-de-camp, who is out of sight +before the hue and cry can be raised--such was the policy advocated two +hundred years ago; such is the policy pursued to day by the few artists +that remain. + +Throughout the eighteenth century the art of cly-faking held its own, +though its reputation paled in the glamour of the highway. It culminated +in George Barrington, whose vivid genius persuaded him to work alone and +to carry off his own booty; it still flourished (in a silver age) when +the incomparable Haggart performed his prodigies of skill; even in our +prosaic time some flashes of the ancient glory have been seen. Now +and again circumstances have driven it into eclipse. When the facile +sentiment of the Early Victorian Era poised the tear of sympathy upon +every trembling eyelid, the most obdurate was forced to provide himself +with a silk handkerchief of equal size and value. + +Now, a wipe is the easiest booty in the world, and the Artful Dodger +might grow rich without the exercise of the smallest skill. But wipes +dwindled, with dwindling sensibility; and once more the pickpocket was +forced upon cleverness or extinction. + +At the same time the more truculent trade of housebreaking was winning +a lesser triumph of its own. Never, save in the hands of one or two +distinguished practitioners, has this clumsy, brutal pursuit taken on +the refinement of an art. Essentially modern, it has generally been +pursued in the meanest spirit of gain. Deacon Brodie clung to it as to +a diversion, but he was an amateur, without a clear understanding of +his craft's possibilities. The sole monarch of housebreakers was Charles +Peace. At a single stride he surpassed his predecessors; nor has the +greatest of his imitators been worthy to hand on the candle which +he left at the gallows. For the rest, there is small distinction +in breaking windows, wielding crowbars, and battering the brains of +defenceless old gentlemen. And it is to such miserable tricks as this +that he who two centuries since rode abroad in all the glory of the +High-toby-splice descends in these days of avarice and stupidity. The +legislators who decreed that henceforth the rope should be reserved for +the ultimate crime of murder were inspired with a proper sense of humour +and proportion. It would be ignoble to dignify that ugly enterprise of +to-day, the cracking of suburban cribs, with the same punishment which +was meted out to Claude Duval and the immortal Switcher. Better for the +churl the disgrace of Portland than the chance of heroism and respect +given at the Tree! + +And where are the heroes whose art was as glorious as their intrepidity? +One and all they have climbed the ascent of Tyburn. + +One and all, they have leaped resplendent from the cart. The world, +which was the joyous playground of highwaymen and pickpockets, is now +the Arcadia of swindlers. The man who once went forth to meet his equal +on the road, now plunders the defenceless widow or the foolish clergyman +from the security of an office. He has changed Black Bess for a +brougham, his pistol for a cigar; a sleek chimney-pot sits upon the +head, which once carried a jaunty hat, three-cornered; spats have +replaced the tops of ancient times; and a heavy fur coat advertises at +once the wealth and inaction of the modern brigand. No longer does he +roam the heaths of Hounslow or Bagshot; no longer does he track the +grazier to a country fair. Fearful of an encounter, he chooses for the +fields of his enterprise the byways of the City, and the advertisement +columns of the smugly Christian Press. He steals without risking his +skin or losing his respectability. The suburb, wherein he brings up +a blameless, flat-footed family, regards him as its most renowned +benefactor. He is generally a pillar (or a buttress) of the Church, and +oftentimes a mayor; with his ill-gotten wealth he promotes charities, +and endows schools; his portrait is painted by a second-rate +Academician, and hangs, until disaster overtakes him, in the town-hall +of his adopted borough. + +How much worse is he than the High-toby-cracks of old! They were as +brave as lions; he is a very louse for timidity. His conduct is meaner +than the conduct of the most ruffianly burglar that ever worked a +centre-bit. Of art he has not the remotest inkling: though his greed +is bounded by the Bank of England, he understands not the elegancies of +life; he cares not how he plumps his purse, so long as it be full; and +if he were capable of conceiving a grand effect, he would willingly +surrender it for a pocketed half-crown. This side the Channel, in brief, +romance and the picturesque are dead; and in France, the last refuge of +crime, there are already signs of decay. The Abbe Bruneau caught a whiff +of style and invention from the past. That other Abbe--Rosslot was his +name--shone forth a pure creator: he owed his prowess to the example of +none. But in Paris crime is too often passionel, and a crime passionel +is a crime with a purpose, which, like the novel with a purpose, is +conceived by a dullard, and carried out for the gratification of the +middle-class. + +To whitewash the scoundrel is to put upon him the heaviest dishonour: a +dishonour comparable only to the monstrously illogical treatment of +the condemned. When once a hero has forfeited his right to comfort and +freedom, when he is deemed no longer fit to live upon earth, the Prison +Chaplain, encouraging him to a final act of hypocrisy, gives him a free +pass (so to say) into another and more exclusive world. So, too, the +moralist would test the thief by his own narrow standard, forgetting +that all professions are not restrained by the same code. The road has +its ordinances as well as the lecture-room; and if the thief is commonly +a bad moralist, it is certain that no moralist was ever a great thief. +Why then detract from a man's legitimate glory? Is it not wiser to +respect 'that deep intuition of oneness,' which Coleridge says is 'at +the bottom of our faults as well as our virtues?' To recognise that +a fault in an honest man is a virtue in a scoundrel? After all, he +is eminent who, in obedience to his talent, does prodigies of valour +unrivalled by his fellows. And none has so many opportunities of various +eminence as the scoundrel. + +The qualities which may profitably be applied to a cross life +are uncommon and innumerable. It is not given to all men to be +light-brained, light-limbed, light-fingered. A courage which shall face +an enemy under the starlight, or beneath the shadow of a wall, which +shall track its prey to a well-defended lair, is far rarer than a +law-abiding cowardice. The recklessness that risks all for a present +advantage is called genius, if a victorious general urge it to success; +nor can you deny to the intrepid Highwayman, whose sudden resolution +triumphs at an instant of peril, the possession of an admirable gift. +But all heroes have not proved themselves excellent at all points. This +one has been distinguished for the courtly manner of his attack, that +other for a prescience which discovers booty behind a coach-door or +within the pocket of a buttoned coat. If Cartouche was a master of +strategy, Barrington was unmatched in another branch; and each may claim +the credit due to a peculiar eminence. It is only thus that you may +measure conflicting talents: as it were unfair to judge a poet by a +brief experiment in prose, so it would be monstrous to cheapen the +accomplishments of a pickpocket, because he bungled at the concealment +of his gains. + +A stern test of artistry is the gallows. Perfect behaviour at an +enforced and public scrutiny may properly be esteemed an effect of +talent--an effect which has not too often been rehearsed. There is no +reason why the Scoundrel, fairly beaten at the last point in the game, +should not go to his death without swagger and without remorse. At +least he might comfort himself with such phrases as 'a dance without the +music,' and he has not often been lacking in courage. What he has missed +is dignity: his pitfalls have been unctuosity, on the one side, bravado +on the other. It was the Prison Ordinary, who first misled him into the +assumption of a piety which neither preacher nor disciple understood. It +was the Prison Ordinary, who persuaded him to sign his name to a +lying confession of guilt, drawn up in accordance with a foolish and +inexorable tradition, and to deliver such a last dying speech as would +not disappoint the mob. + +The set phrases, the vain prayer offered for other sinners, the +hypocritical profession of a superior righteousness, were neither noble +nor sincere. When Tom Jones (for instance) was hanged, in 1702, after +a prosperous career on Hounslow Heath, his biographer declared that +he behaved with more than usual 'modesty and decency,' because he +'delivered a pretty deal of good advice to the young men present, +exhorting them to be industrious in their several callings.' Whereas +his biographer should have discovered that it is not thus that your true +hero bids farewell to frolic and adventure. + +As little in accordance with good taste was the last appearance of the +infamous Jocelin Harwood, who was swung from the cart in 1692 for murder +and robbery. He arrived at Tyburn insolently drunk. He blustered and +ranted, until the spectators hissed their disapproval, and he died +vehemently shouting that he would act the same murder again in the same +case. Unworthy, also, was the last dying repartee of Samuel Shotland, +a notorious bully of the Eighteenth Century. Taking off his shoes, he +hurled them into the crowd, with a smirk of delight. 'My father and +mother often told me,' he cried, 'that I should die with my shoes on; +but you may all see that I have made them both liars.' A great man dies +not with so mean a jest, and Tyburn was untouched to mirth by Shotland's +facile humour. + +On the other hand, there are those who have given a splendid example of +a brave and dignified death. Brodie was a sorry bungler when at work, +but a perfect artist at the gallows. The glory of his last achievement +will never fade. The muttered prayer, unblemished by hypocrisy, the jest +thrown at George Smith--a metaphor from the gaming-table--the silent +adjustment of the cord which was to strangle him, these last offices +were performed with an unparalleled quietude and restraint. Though he +had pattered the flash to all his wretched accomplices, there was no +trace of the last dying speech in his final utterances, and he set an +example of a simple greatness, worthy to be followed even to the end +of time. Such is the type, but others also have given proof of a serene +temper. Tom Austin's masterpiece was in another kind, but it was none +the less a masterpiece. At the very moment that the halter was being put +about his neck, he was asked by the Chaplain what he had to say before +he died. 'Only,' says he, 'there's a woman yonder with some curds and +whey, and I wish I could have a pennyworth of them before I am hanged, +because I don't know when I shall see any again.' There is a brave +irrelevance in this very human desire, which is beyond praise. + +Valiant also was the conduct of Roderick Audrey, who after a brief but +brilliant career paid his last debt to the law in 1714. + +He was but sixteen, and, says his biographer, 'he went very decent to +the gallows, being in a white waistcoat, clean napkin, white gloves, and +an orange in one hand.' So well did he play his part, that one wonders +Jack Ketch did not shrink from the performance of his. But throughout +his short life, Roderick Audrey--the very name is an echo of +romance!--displayed a contempt for whatever was common or ugly. Not only +was his appearance at Tyburn a lesson in elegance, but he thieved, +as none ever thieved before or since, with no other accomplice than a +singing-bird. Thus he would play outside a house, wherein he espied a +sideboard of plate, and at last, bidding his playmate flutter through +an open window into the parlour, he would follow upon the excuse of +recovery, and, once admitted, would carry off as much silver as he could +conceal. None other ever attempted so graceful an artifice, and yet +Audrey's journey to Tyburn is even more memorable than the story of his +gay accomplice. + +But it is not only the truly great who have won for themselves an +enduring reputation. There are men, not a few, esteemed, like the +popular novelist, not for their art but for some foolish gift, some +facile trick of notoriety, whose actions have tickled the fancy, not the +understanding of the world. The coward and the impostor have been set +upon a pedestal of glory either by accident or by the whim of posterity. +For more than a century Dick Turpin has appeared not so much the +greatest of highwaymen, as the Highwaymen Incarnate. His prowess has +been extolled in novels and upon the stage; his ride to York is still +bepraised for a feat of miraculous courage and endurance; the death of +Black Bess has drawn floods of tears down the most callous cheeks. And +the truth is that Turpin was never a gentleman of the road at all! Black +Bess is as pure an invention as the famous ride to York. The ruffian, +who is said to have ridden the phantom mare from one end of England to +the other, was a common butcher, who burned an old woman to death at +Epping, and was very properly hanged at York for the stealing of a horse +which he dared not bestride. + +Not one incident in his career gives colour to the splendid myth which +has been woven round his memory. Once he was in London, and he died at +York. So much is true; but there is naught to prove that his progress +from the one town to the other did not occupy a year. Nor is there any +reason why the halo should have been set upon his head rather than upon +another's. Strangest truth of all, none knows at what moment Dick Turpin +first shone into glory. At any rate, there is a gap in the tradition, +and the chap-books of the time may not be credited with this vulgar +error. Perhaps it was the popular drama of Skelt which put the ruffian +upon the black mare's back; but whatever the date of the invention, +Turpin was a popular hero long before Ainsworth sent him rattling across +England. And in order to equip this butcher with a false reputation, +a valiant officer and gentleman was stripped of the credit due to +a magnificent achievement. For though Turpin tramped to York at a +journeyman's leisure, Nicks rode thither at a stretch--Nicks the +intrepid and gallant, whom Charles II., in admiration of his feat, was +wont to call Swiftnicks. + +This valiant collector, whom posterity has robbed for Turpin's +embellishment, lived at the highest moment of his art. He knew by rote +the lessons taught by Hind and Duval; he was a fearless rider and a +courteous thief. Now, one morning at five of the clock, he robbed a +gentleman near Barnet of L560, and riding straight for York, he appeared +on the Bowling Green at six in the evening. Being presently recognised +by his victim, he was apprehended, and at the trial which followed he +pleaded a triumphant alibi. But vanity was too strong for discretion, +and no sooner was Swiftnicks out of danger, than he boasted, as well he +might, of his splendid courage. Forthwith he appeared a popular hero, +obtained a commission in Lord Moncastle's regiment, and married a +fortune. And then came Turpin to filch his glory! Nor need Turpin have +stooped to a vicarious notoriety, for he possessed a certain rough, half +conscious humour, which was not despicable. He purchased a new fustian +coat and a pair of pumps, in which to be hanged, and he hired five poor +men at ten shillings the day, that his death might not go unmourned. +Above all, he was distinguished in prison. A crowd thronged his cell +to identify him, and one there was who offered to bet the keeper half a +guinea that the prisoner was not Turpin; whereupon Turpin whispered the +keeper, 'Lay him the wager, you fool, and I will go you halves.' Surely +this impudent indifference might have kept green the memory of the man +who never rode to York! + +If the Scoundrel may claim distinction on many grounds, his character +is singularly uniform. To the anthropologist he might well appear +the survival of a savage race, and savage also are his manifold +superstitions. He is a creature of times and seasons. He chooses the +occasion of his deeds with as scrupulous a care as he examines his +formidable crowbars and jemmies. At certain hours he would refrain from +action, though every circumstance favoured his success: he would rather +obey the restraining voice of a wise, unreasoning wizardry, than fill +his pockets with the gold for which his human soul is ever hungry. There +is no law of man he dares not break but he shrinks in horror from the +infringement of the unwritten rules of savagery. Though he might cut a +throat in self-defence, he would never walk under a ladder; and if the +13th fell on a Friday, he would starve that day rather than obtain a +loaf by the method he best understands. He consults the omens with as +patient a divination as the augurs of old; and so long as he carries an +amulet in his pocket, though it be but a pebble or a polished nut, he is +filled with an irresistible courage. For him the worst terror of all is +the evil eye, and he would rather be hanged by an unsuspected judge than +receive an easy stretch from one whose glance he dared not face. And +while the anthropologist claims him for a savage, whose civilisation has +been arrested at brotherhood with the Solomon Islanders, the politician +might pronounce him a true communist, in that he has preserved a +wholesome contempt of property and civic life. The pedant, again, would +feel his bumps, prescribe a gentle course of bromide, and hope to cure +all the sins of the world by a municipal Turkish bath. The wise man, +respecting his superstitions, is content to take him as he finds him, +and to deduce his character from his very candid history, which is +unaffected by pedant or politician. + +Before all things, he is sanguine; he believes that Chance, the great +god of his endeavour, fights upon his side. Whatever is lacking to-day, +to-morrow's enterprise will fulfil, and if only the omens be favourable, +he fears neither detection nor the gallows. His courage proceeds from +this sanguine temperament, strengthened by shame and tradition rather +than from a self-controlled magnanimity; he hopes until despair is +inevitable, and then walks firmly to the gallows, that no comrade may +suspect the white feather. His ambition, too, is the ambition of the +savage or of the child; he despises such immaterial advantages as power +and influence, being perfectly content if he have a smart coat on his +back and a bottle of wine at his elbow. He would rather pick a lock than +batter a constitution, and the world would be well lost, if he and his +doxy might survey the ruin in comfort. + +But if his ambition be modest, his love of notoriety is boundless. +He must be famous, his name must be in the mouths of men, he must be +immortal (for a week) in a rough woodcut. And then, what matters it how +soon the end? His braveries have been hawked in the street; his prowess +has sold a Special Edition; he is the first of his race, until a luckier +rival eclipses him. Thus, also, his dandyism is inevitable: it is not +enough for him to cover his nakedness--he must dress; and though his +taste is sometimes unbridled, it is never insignificant. Indeed, his +biographers have recorded the expression of his fancy in coats and +small-clothes as patiently and enthusiastically as they have applauded +his courage. And truly the love of magnificence, which he shares with +all artists, is sincere and characteristic. When an accomplice of +Jonathan Wild's robbed Lady M----n at Windsor, his equipage cost him +forty pounds; and Nan Hereford was arrested for shoplifting at the very +moment that four footmen awaited her return with an elegant sedan-chair. + +His vanity makes him but a prudish lover, who desires to woo less than +to be wooed; and at all times and through all moods he remains the +primeval sentimentalist. He will detach his life entirely from the +catchwords which pretend to govern his actions; he will sit and croon +the most heartrending ditties in celebration of home-life and a mother's +love, and then set forth incontinently upon a well-planned errand of +plunder. For all his artistry, he lacks balance as flagrantly as a +popular politician or an advanced journalist. Therefore it is the more +remarkable that in one point he displays a certain caution: he boggles +at a superfluous murder. For all his contempt of property, he still +preserves a respect for life, and the least suspicion of unnecessary +brutality sets not only the law but his own fellows against him. Like +all men whose god is Opportunity, he is a reckless gambler; and, like +all gamblers, he is monstrously extravagant. In brief, he is a tangle of +picturesque qualities, which, until our own generation, was incapable of +nothing save dulness. + +The Bible and the Newgate Calendar--these twain were George Borrow's +favourite reading, and all save the psychologist and the pedant will +applaud the preference. For the annals of the 'family' are distinguished +by an epic severity, a fearless directness of speech, which you will +hardly match outside the Iliad or the Chronicles of the Kings. But the +Newgate Calendar did not spring ready-made into being: it is the result +of a curious and gradual development. The chap-books came first, with +their bold type, their coarse paper, and their clumsy, characteristic +woodcuts--the chap-books, which none can contemplate without an +enchanted sentiment. Here at last you come upon a literature, which has +been read to pieces. The very rarity of the slim, rough volumes, proves +that they have been handed from one greedy reader to another, until the +great libraries alone are rich enough to harbour them. They do not +boast the careful elegance of a famous press: many of them came from the +printing-office of a country town: yet the least has a simplicity and +concision, which are unknown in this age of popular fiction. Even their +lack of invention is admirable: as the same woodcut might be used to +represent Guy, Earl of Warwick, or the last highwayman who suffered +at Tyburn, so the same enterprise is ascribed with a delightful +ingenuousness to all the heroes who rode abroad under the stars to fill +their pockets. + +The Life and Death of Gamaliel Ratsey delighted England in 1605, and +was the example of after ages. The anecdote of the road was already +crystallised, and henceforth the robber was unable to act contrary to +the will of the chap-book. Thus there grew up a folk-lore of thievery: +the very insistence upon the same motive suggests the fairytale, and, as +in the legends of every country, there is an identical element which the +anthropologists call 'human'; so in the annals of adventure there is +a set of invariable incidents, which are the essence of thievery. The +industrious hacks, to whom we owe the entertainment of the chap-books, +being seedy parsons or lawyers' clerks, were conscious of their literary +deficiencies: they preferred to obey tradition rather than to invent +ineptitudes. So you may trace the same jest, the same intrigue through +the unnumbered lives of three centuries. And if, being a philosopher, +you neglect the obvious plagiarism, you may induce from these +similarities a cunning theory concerning the uniformity of the human +brain. But the easier explanation is, as always, the more satisfactory; +and there is little doubt that in versatility the thief surpassed his +historian. + +Had the chap-books still been scattered in disregarded corners, they +would have been unknown or misunderstood. Happily, a man of genius +came in the nick to convert them into as vivid and sparkling a piece +of literature as the time could show. This was Captain Alexander Smith, +whose Lives of the Highwaymen, published in 1719, was properly described +by its author as 'the first impartial piece of this nature which ever +appeared in English.' Now, Captain Smith inherited from a nameless +father no other patrimony than a fierce loyalty to the Stuarts, and the +sanguine temperament which views in horror a well-ordered life. Though +a mere foundling, he managed to acquire the rudiments, and he was not +wholly unlettered when at eighteen he took to the road. His courage, +fortified by an intimate knowledge of the great tradition, was rewarded +by an immediate success, and he rapidly became the master of so +much leisure as enabled him to pursue his studies with pleasure and +distinction. When his companions damned him for a milksop, he was +loftily contemptuous, conscious that it was not in intelligence alone +that he was their superior. While the Stuarts were the gods of his +idolatry, while the Regicides were the fiends of his frank abhorrence, +it was from the Elizabethans that he caught the splendid vigour of his +style; and he owed not only his historical sense, but his living English +to the example of Philemon Holland. Moreover, it is to his constant +glory that, living at a time that preferred as well to attenuate the +English tongue as to degrade the profession of the highway, he not only +rode abroad with a fearless courtesy, but handled his own language with +the force and spirit of an earlier age. + +He wrote with the authority of courage and experience. A hazardous +career had driven envy and malice from his dauntless breast. Though he +confesses a debt to certain 'learned and eminent divines of the Church +of England,' he owed a greater debt to his own observation, and he +knew--none better--how to recognise with enthusiasm those deeds of +daring which only himself has rivalled. A master of etiquette, he +distributed approval and censure with impartial hand; and he was +quick to condemn the smallest infraction of an ancient law. Nor was he +insensible to the dignity of history. The best models were always +before him. With admirable zeal he studied the manner of such masters +as Thucydides and Titus Livius of Padua. Above all, he realised +the importance of setting appropriate speeches in the mouths of his +characters; and, permitting his heroes to speak for themselves, he +imparted to his work an irresistible air of reality and good faith. His +style, always studied, was neither too low nor too high for his subject. +An ill-balanced sentence was as hateful to him as a foul thrust or a +stolen advantage. + +Abroad a craftsman, he carried into the closet the skill and energy +which distinguished him when the moon was on the heath. Though not +born to the arts of peace, he was determined to prove his respect for +letters, and his masterpiece is no less pompous in manner than it is +estimable in tone and sound in reflection. He handled slang as one who +knew its limits and possibilities, employing it not for the sake of +eccentricity, but to give the proper colour and sparkle to his page; +indeed, his intimate acquaintance with the vagabonds of speech enabled +him to compile a dictionary of Pedlar's French, which has been pilfered +by a whole battalion of imitators. Moreover, there was none of the +proverbs of the pavement, those first cousins of slang, that escaped +him; and he assumed all the licence of the gentleman-collector in the +treatment of his love-passages. + +Captain Smith took the justest view of his subject. For him robbery, in +the street as on the highway, was the finest of the arts, and he always +revered it for its own sake rather than for vulgar profit. Though, to +deceive the public, he abhorred villainy in word, he never concealed his +admiration in deed of a 'highwayman who robs like a gentleman.' 'There +is a beauty in all the works of nature,' he observes in one of his +wittiest exordia, 'which we are unable to define, though all the world +is convinced of its existence: so in every action and station of life +there is a grace to be attained, which will make a man pleasing to all +about him and serene in his own mind.' Some there are, he continues, who +have placed 'this beauty in vice itself; otherwise it is hardly probable +that they could commit so many irregularities with a strong gust and +an appearance of satisfaction.' Notwithstanding that the word 'vice' is +used in its conventional sense, we have here the key to Captain Smith's +position. He judged his heroes' achievements with the intelligent +impartiality of a connoisseur, and he permitted no other prejudice than +an unfailing loyalty to interrupt his opinion. + +Though he loved good English as he loved good wine, he was never so +happy as when (in imagination) he was tying the legs of a Regicide under +the belly of an ass. And when in the manner of a bookseller's hack he +compiled a Comical and Tragical History of the Lives and Adventures of +the most noted Bayliffs, adoration of the Royalists persuaded him to +miss his chance. So brave a spirit as himself should not have +looked complacently upon the officers of the law, but he saw in +the glorification of the bayliff another chance of castigating the +Roundheads, and thus he set an honorific crown upon the brow of man's +natural enemy. 'These unsanctified rascals,' wrote he, 'would run into +any man's debt without paying him, and if their creditors were Cavaliers +they thought they had as much right to cheat 'em, as the Israelites had +to spoil the Egyptians of their ear-rings and jewels.' Alas! the boot +was ever on the other leg; and yet you cannot but admire the Captain's +valiant determination to sacrifice probability to his legitimate hate. + +Of his declining years and death there is no record. One likes to think +of him released from care, and surrounded by books, flowers, and the +good things of this earth. Now and again, maybe, he would muse on the +stirring deeds of his youth, and more often he would put away the memory +of action to delight in the masterpiece which made him immortal. He +would recall with pleasure, no doubt, the ready praise of Richard +Steele, his most appreciative critic, and smile contemptuously at the +baseness of his friend and successor, Captain Charles Johnson. Now, this +ingenious writer was wont to boast, when the ale of Fleet Street had +empurpled his nose, that he was the most intrepid highwayman of them +all. 'Once upon a time,' he would shout, with an arrogant gesture, 'I +was known from Blackheath to Hounslow, from Ware to Shooter's Hill.' +And the truth is, the only 'crime' he ever committed was plagiarism. +The self-assumed title of Captain should have deceived nobody, for the +braggart never stole anything more difficult of acquisition than another +man's words. He picked brains, not pockets; he committed the greater +sin and ran no risk. He helped himself to the admirable inventions +of Captain Smith without apology or acknowledgment, and, as though to +lighten the dead-weight of his sin, he never skipped an opportunity of +maligning his victim. Again and again in the very act to steal he will +declare vaingloriously that Captain Smith's stories are 'barefaced +inventions.' But doubt was no check to the habit of plunder, and you +knew that at every reproach, expressed (so to say) in self-defence, he +plied the scissors with the greater energy. The most cunning theft is +the tag which adorns the title-page of his book: + + Little villains oft submit to fate + That great ones may enjoy the world in state. + +Thus he quotes from Gay, and you applaud the aptness of the quotation, +until you discover that already it was used by Steele in his +appreciation of the heroic Smith! However, Johnson has his uses, and +those to whom the masterpiece of Captain Alexander is inaccessible will +turn with pleasure to the General History of the lives and adventures +of the most Famous Highwaymen, Murderers, Street-Robbers, &c., and will +feel no regret that for once they are receiving stolen goods. + +Though Johnson fell immeasurably below his predecessor in talent, he +manifestly excelled him in scholarship. A sojourn at the University had +supplied him with a fine assortment of Latin tags, and he delighted to +prove his erudition by the citation of the Chronicles. Had he possessed +a sense of humour, he might have smiled at the irony of committing a +theft upon the historian of thieves. But he was too vain and too pompous +to smile at his own weakness, and thus he would pretend himself a +venturesome highwayman, a brave writer, and a profound scholar. Indeed, +so far did his pride carry him, that he would have the world believe +him the same Charles Johnson, who wrote The Gentleman Cully and The +Successful Pyrate. Thus with a boastful chuckle he would quote: + + Johnson, who now to sense, now nonsense leaning, + Means not, but blunders round about a meaning + +Thus, ignoring the insult, he would plume himself after his drunken +fashion that he, too, was an enemy of Pope. + +Yet Johnson has remained an example. For the literature of scoundrelism +is as persistent in its form as in its folk-lore. As Harman's Caveat, +which first saw the light in 1566, serves as a model to an unbroken +series of such books, as The London Spy, so from Johnson in due course +were developed the Newgate Calendar, and those innumerable records, +which the latter half of the Eighteenth Century furnished us forth. +The celebrated Calendar was in its origin nothing more than a list +of prisoners printed in a folio slip. But thereafter it became the +Malefactor's Bloody Register, which we know. Its plan and purpose were +to improve the occasion. The thief is no longer esteemed for an artist +or appraised upon his merits: he is the awful warning, which shall +lead the sinner to repentance. 'Here,' says the preface, 'the giddy +thoughtless youth may see as in a mirror the fatal consequences of +deviating from virtue'; here he may tremble at the discovery that 'often +the best talents are prostituted to the basest purposes.' But in spite +of 'the proper reflections of the whole affair,' the famous Calendar +deserved the praise of Borrow. There is a directness in the narration, +which captures all those for whom life and literature are something +better than psychologic formulae. Moreover, the motives which drive +the brigand to his doom are brutal in their simplicity, and withal as +genuine and sincere as greed, vanity, and lust can make them. The true +amateur takes pleasure even in the pious exhortations, because he knows +that they crawl into their place, lest the hypocrite be scandalised. +But with years the Newgate Calendar also declined, and at last it has +followed other dead literatures into the night. + +Meanwhile the broadside had enjoyed an unbroken and prosperous career. +Up and down London, up and down England, hurried the Patterer or Flying +Stationer. There was no murder, no theft, no conspiracy, which did not +tempt the Gutter Muse to doggerel. But it was not until James Catnach +came up from Alnwick to London (in 1813), that the trade reached the top +of its prosperity. The vast sheets, which he published with their scurvy +couplets, and the admirable picture, serving in its time for a hundred +executions, have not lost their power to fascinate. Theirs is the aspect +of the early woodcut; the coarse type and the catchpenny headlines are +a perpetual delight; as you unfold them, your care keeps pace with your +admiration; and you cannot feel them crackle beneath your hand without +enthusiasm and without regret. He was no pedant--Jemmy Catnach; and +the image of his ruffians was commonly as far from portraiture, as +his verses were remote from poetry. But he put together in a roughly +artistic shape the last murder, robbery, or scandal of the day. His +masterpieces were far too popular to live, and if they knew so vast a +circulation as 2,500,000 they are hard indeed to come by. And now the +art is wellnigh dead; though you may discover an infrequent survival in +a country town. But how should Catnach, were he alive to-day, compete +with the Special Edition of an evening print? + +The decline of the Scoundrel, in fact, has been followed by the +disappearance of chap-book and broadside. The Education Act, which made +the cheap novel a necessity, destroyed at a blow the literature of the +street. Since the highwayman wandered, fur-coated, into the City, the +patterer has lost his occupation. Robbery and murder have degenerated +into Chinese puzzles, whose solution is a pleasant irritant to the +idle brain. The misunderstanding of Poe has produced a vast polyglot +literature, for which one would not give in exchange a single chapter of +Captain Smith. Vautrin and Bill Sykes are already discredited, and it +is a false reflection of M. Dupin, which dazzles the eye of a moral and +unimaginative world. Yet the wise man sighs for those fearless days, +when the brilliant Macheath rode vizarded down Shooter's Hill, and +presently saw his exploits set forth, with the proper accompaniment of a +renowned and ancient woodcut, upon a penny broadside. + + + + +CAPTAIN HIND + + +JAMES HIND, the Master Thief of England, the fearless Captain of the +Highway, was born at Chipping Norton in 1618. His father, a simple +saddler, had so poor an appreciation of his son's magnanimity, that he +apprenticed him to a butcher; but Hind's destiny was to embrue his +hands in other than the blood of oxen, and he had not long endured the +restraint of this common craft when forty shillings, the gift of +his mother, purchased him an escape, and carried him triumphant and +ambitious to London. + +Even in his negligent schooldays he had fastened upon a fitting +career. A born adventurer, he sought only enterprise and command: if a +commission in the army failed him, then he would risk his neck upon the +road, levying his own tax and imposing his own conditions. To one of his +dauntless resolution an opportunity need never have lacked; yet he owed +his first preferment to a happy accident. Surprised one evening in a +drunken brawl, he was hustled into the Poultry Counter, and there made +acquaintance over a fresh bottle with Robert Allen, one of the chief +rogues in the Park, and a ruffian, who had mastered every trick in the +game of plunder. A dexterous cly-faker, an intrepid blade, Allen had +also the keenest eye for untested talent, and he detected Hind's shining +qualities after the first glass. No sooner had they paid the price of +release, than Hind was admitted of his comrade's gang; he took the +oath of fealty, and by way of winning his spurs was bid to hold up +a traveller on Shooter's Hill. Granted his choice of a mount, he +straightway took the finest in the stable, with that keen perception of +horse-flesh which never deserted him, and he confronted his first victim +in the liveliest of humours. There was no falter in his voice, no hint +of inexperience in his manner, when he shouted the battle-cry: 'Stand +and deliver!' The horseman, fearful of his life, instantly surrendered a +purse of ten sovereigns, as to the most practised assailant on the road. +Whereupon Hind, with a flourish of ancient courtesy, gave him twenty +shillings to bear his charges. 'This,' said he, 'is for handsale sake '; +and thus they parted in mutual compliment and content. + +Allen was overjoyed at his novice's prowess. 'Did you not see,' he cried +to his companions, 'how he robbed him with a grace?' And well did the +trooper deserve his captain's compliment, for his art was perfect from +the first. In bravery as in gallantry he knew no rival, and he plundered +with so elegant a style, that only a churlish victim could resent the +extortion. He would as soon have turned his back upon an enemy as +demand a purse uncovered. For every man he had a quip, for every woman +a compliment; nor did he ever conceal the truth that the means were for +him as important as the end. Though he loved money, he still insisted +that it should be yielded in freedom and good temper; and while he +emptied more coaches than any man in England, he was never at a loss for +admirers. + +Under Allen he served a brilliant apprenticeship. Enrolled as a servant, +he speedily sat at the master's right hand, and his nimble brains +devised many a pretty campaign. For a while success dogged the +horse-hoofs of the gang; with wealth came immunity, and not one of the +warriors had the misfortune to look out upon the world through a grate. +They robbed with dignity, even with splendour. Now they would drive +forth in a coach and four, carrying with them a whole armoury of +offensive weapons; now they would take the road apparelled as noblemen, +and attended at a discreet distance by their proper servants. But +recklessness brought the inevitable disaster; and it was no less a +personage than Oliver Cromwell who overcame the hitherto invincible +Allen. A handful of the gang attacked Oliver on his way from Huntingdon, +but the marauders were outmatched, and the most of them were forced +to surrender. Allen, taken red-handed, swung at Tyburn; Hind, with his +better mount and defter horsemanship, rode clear away. + +The loss of his friend was a lesson in caution, and henceforth Hind +resolved to follow his craft in solitude. He had embellished his +native talent with all the instruction that others could impart, and he +reflected that he who rode alone neither ran risk of discovery nor +had any need to share his booty. Thus he began his easy, untrammelled +career, making time and space of no account by his rapid, fearless +journeys. Now he was prancing the moors of Yorkshire, now he was +scouring the plain between Gloucester and Tewkesbury, but wherever he +rode, he had a purse in his pocket and a jest on his tongue. To recall +his prowess is to ride with him (in fancy) under the open sky along the +fair, beaten road; to put up with him at the busy, white posthouse, to +drink unnumbered pints of mulled sack with the round-bellied landlord, +to exchange boastful stories over the hospitable fire, and to ride forth +in the morning with the joyous uncertainty of travel upon you. Failure +alone lay outside his experience, and he presently became at once the +terror and the hero of England. + +Not only was his courage conspicuous; luck also was his constant +companion; and a happy bewitchment protected him for three years against +the possibility of harm. He had been lying at Hatfield, at the George +Inn, and set out in the early morning for London. As he neared the +town-gate, an old beldame begged an alms of him, and though Hind, +not liking her ill-favoured visage, would have spurred forward, the +beldame's glittering eye held his horse motionless. 'Good woman,' cried +Hind, flinging her a crown, 'I am in haste; pray let me pass.' 'Sir,' +answered the witch, 'three days I have awaited your coming. Would you +have me lose my labour now?' And with Hind's assent the sphinx delivered +her message: 'Captain Hind,' said she, 'your life is beset with constant +danger, and since from your birth I have wished you well, my poor skill +has devised a perfect safeguard.' With this she gave him a small box +containing what might have been a sundial or compass. 'Watch this star,' +quoth she, 'and when you know not your road, follow its guidance. Thus +you shall be preserved from every peril for the space of three years. +Thereafter, if you still have faith in my devotion, seek me again, and I +will renew the virtue of the charm.' + +Hind took the box joyfully; but when he turned to murmur a word of +gratitude, the witch struck his nag's flanks with a white wand, the +horse leapt vehemently forward, and Hind saw his benefactress no more. +Henceforth, however, a warning voice spoke to him as plainly as did the +demon to Socrates; and had he but obeyed the beldame's admonition, he +might have escaped a violent death. For he passed the last day of the +third year at the siege of Youghal, where; deprived of happy guidance, +he was seriously wounded, and whence he presently regained England to +his own undoing. + +So long as he kept to the road, his life was one long comedy. His wit +and address were inexhaustible, and fortune never found him at a loss. +He would avert suspicion with the tune of a psalm, as when, habited +like a pious shepherd, he broke a traveller's head with his crook, and +deprived him of his horse. An early adventure was to force a pot-valiant +parson, who had drunk a cup too much at a wedding, into a rarely +farcical situation. Hind, having robbed two gentlemen's servants of a +round sum, went ambling along the road until he encountered a parson. +'Sir,' said he, 'I am closely pursued by robbers. You, I dare swear, +will not stand by and see me plundered.' Before the parson could +protest, he thrust a pistol into his hand, and bade him fire it at the +first comer, while he rode off to raise the county. Meanwhile the rifled +travellers came up with the parson, who, straightway, mistaking them +for thieves, fired without effect, and then, riding forward, flung the +pistol in the face of the nearest. Thus the parson of the parish was +dragged before the magistrate, while Hind, before his dupe could +furnish an explanation, had placed many a mile between himself and his +adversary. + +Though he could on occasion show a clean pair of heels, Hind was never +lacking in valiance; and, another day, meeting a traveller with a +hundred pounds in his pocket, he challenged him to fight there and then, +staked his own horse against the money, and declared that he should +win who drew first blood. 'If I am the conqueror,' said the magnanimous +Captain, 'I will give you ten pounds for your journey. If you are +favoured of fortune, you shall give me your servant's horse.' The terms +were instantly accepted, and in two minutes Hind had run his adversary +through the sword-arm. But finding that his victim was but a poor squire +going to London to pay his composition, he not only returned his +money, but sought him out a surgeon, and gave him the best dinner the +countryside could afford. + +Thus it was his pleasure to act as a providence, many a time robbing +Peter to pay Paul, and stripping the niggard that he might indulge +his fervent love of generosity. Of all usurers and bailiffs he had +a wholesome horror, and merry was the prank which he played upon the +extortionate money-lender of Warwick. Riding on an easy rein through the +town, Hind heard a tumult at a street corner, and inquiring the cause, +was told that an innkeeper was arrested by a thievish usurer for +a paltry twenty pounds. Dismounting, this providence in jack-boots +discharged the debt, cancelled the bond, and took the innkeeper's goods +for his own security. And thereupon overtaking the usurer, 'My friend!' +he exclaimed, 'I lent you late a sum of twenty pounds. Repay it at once, +or I take your miserable life.' The usurer was obliged to return the +money, with another twenty for interest, and when he would take the law +of the innkeeper, was shown the bond duly cancelled, and was flogged +wellnigh to death for his pains. + +So Hind rode the world up and down, redressing grievances like an +Eastern monarch, and rejoicing in the abasement of the evildoer. Nor +was the spirit of his adventure bounded by the ocean. More than once +he crossed the seas; the Hague knew him, and Amsterdam, though these +somnolent cities gave small occasion for the display of his talents. +It was from Scilly that he crossed to the Isle of Man, where, being +recommended to Lord Derby, he gained high favour, and received in +exchange for his jests a comfortable stipend. Hitherto, said the +Chronicles, thieving was unknown in the island. A man might walk whither +he would, a bag of gold in one hand, a switch in the other, and fear no +danger. But no sooner had Hind appeared at Douglas than honest citizens +were pilfered at every turn. In dismay they sought the protection of +the Governor, who instantly suspected Hind, and gallantly disclosed his +suspicions to the Captain. 'My lord!' exclaimed Hind, a blush upon his +cheek, 'I protest my innocence; but willingly will I suffer the heaviest +penalty of your law if I am recognised for the thief.' The victims, +confronted with their robber, knew him not, picturing to the Governor +a monster with long hair and unkempt beard. Hind, acquitted with +apologies, fetched from his lodging the disguise of periwig and beard. +'They laugh who win!' he murmured, and thus forced forgiveness and a +chuckle even from his judges. + +As became a gentleman-adventurer, Captain Hind was staunch in his +loyalty to his murdered King. To strip the wealthy was always reputable, +but to rob a Regicide was a masterpiece of well-doing. + +A fervent zeal to lighten Cromwell's pocket had brought the illustrious +Allen to the gallows. But Hind was not one whit abashed, and he would +never forego the chance of an encounter with his country's enemies. His +treatment of Hugh Peters in Enfield Chace is among his triumphs. At the +first encounter the Presbyterian plucked up courage enough to oppose +his adversary with texts. To Hind's command of 'Stand and deliver!' duly +enforced with a loaded pistol, the ineffable Peters replied with ox-eye +sanctimoniously upturned: 'Thou shalt not steal; let him that +stole, steal no more,' adding thereto other variations of the eighth +commandment. Hind immediately countered with exhortations against the +awful sin of murder, and rebuked the blasphemy of the Regicides, who, +to defend their own infamy, would wrest Scripture from its meaning. +'Did you not, O monster of impiety,' mimicked Hind in the preacher's own +voice, 'pervert for your own advantage the words of the Psalmist, who +said, "Bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of +iron"? Moreover, was it not Solomon who wrote: "Men do not despise a +thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry"? And is not my +soul hungry for gold and the Regicides' discomfiture?' Peters was still +fumbling after texts when the final argument: 'Deliver thy money, or I +will send thee out of the world!' frightened him into submission, and +thirty broad pieces were Hind's reward. + +Not long afterwards he confronted Bradshaw near Sherborne, and, having +taken from him a purse fat with Jacobuses, he bade the Sergeant stand +uncovered while he delivered a discourse upon gold, thus shaped by +tradition: 'Ay, marry, sir, this is the metal that wins my heart for +ever! O precious gold, I admire and adore thee as much as Bradshaw, +Prynne, or any villain of the same stamp. This is that incomparable +medicament, which the republican physicians call the wonder-working +plaster. It is truly catholic in operation, and somewhat akin to the +Jesuit's powder, but more effectual. The virtues of it are strange and +various; it makes justice deaf as well as blind, and takes out spots of +the deepest treason more cleverly than castle-soap does common stains; +it alters a man's constitution in two or three days, more than the +virtuoso's transfusion of blood can do in seven years. 'Tis a great +alexiopharmick, and helps poisonous principles of rebellion, and those +that use them. It miraculously exalts and purifies the eyesight, and +makes traitors behold nothing but innocence in the blackest malefactors. +'Tis a mighty cordial for a declining cause; it stifles faction or +schism, as certainly as the itch is destroyed by butter and brimstone. +In a word, it makes wise men fools, and fools wise men, and both knaves. +The very colour of this precious balm is bright and dazzling. If it +be properly applied to the fist, that is in a decent manner, and a +competent dose, it infallibly performs all the cures which the evils +of humanity crave.' Thus having spoken, he killed the six horses of +Bradshaw's coach, and went contemptuously on his way. + +But he was not a Cavalier merely in sympathy, nor was he content to +prove his loyalty by robbing Roundheads. He, too, would strike a blow +for his King, and he showed, first with the royal army in Scotland, and +afterwards at Worcester, what he dared in a righteous cause. Indeed, it +was his part in the unhappy battle that cost him his life, and there is +a strange irony in the reflection that, on the self-same day whereon Sir +Thomas Urquhart lost his precious manuscripts in Worcester's kennels, +the neck of James Hind was made ripe for the halter. His capture was due +to treachery. Towards the end of 1651 he was lodged with one Denzys, a +barber, over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street. Maybe he had +chosen his hiding-place for its neighbourhood to Moll Cutpurse's own +sanctuary. But a pack of traitors discovered him, and haling him before +the Speaker of the House of Commons, got him committed forthwith to +Newgate. + +At first he was charged with theft and murder, and was actually +condemned for killing George Sympson at Knole in Berkshire. But the day +after his sentence, an Act of Oblivion was passed, and Hind was put upon +trial for treason. During his examination he behaved with the utmost +gaiety, boastfully enlarging upon his services to the King's cause. +'These are filthy jingling spurs,' said he as he left the bar, pointing +to the irons about his legs, 'but I hope to exchange them ere long.' +His good-humour remained with him to the end. He jested in prison as he +jested on the road, and it was with a light heart that he mounted the +scaffold built for him at Worcester. His was the fate reserved for +traitors: he was hanged, drawn, and quartered, and though his head was +privily stolen and buried on the day of execution, his quarters were +displayed upon the town walls, until time and the birds destoyed{sic} +them utterly. + +Thus died the most famous highwayman that ever drew rein upon an English +road; and he died the death of a hero. The unnumbered crimes of violence +and robbery wherewith he might have been charged weighed not a feather's +weight upon his destiny; he suffered not in the cause of plunder, but +in the cause of Charles Stuart. And in thus excusing his death, his +contemporaries did him scant justice. For while in treasonable loyalty +he had a thousand rivals, on the road he was the first exponent of the +grand manner. The middle of the seventeenth century was, in truth, the +golden age of the Road. Not only were all the highwaymen Cavaliers, +but many a Cavalier turned highwayman. Broken at their King's defeat, +a hundred captains took pistol and vizard, and revenged themselves as +freebooters upon the King's enemies. And though Hind was outlaw first +and royalist afterwards, he was still the most brilliant collector of +them all. If he owed something to his master, Allen, he added from the +storehouse of his own genius a host of new precepts, and was the first +to establish an enduring tradition. + +Before all things he insisted upon courtesy; a guinea stolen by an +awkward ruffian was a sorry theft; levied by a gentleman of the highway, +it was a tribute paid to courage by generosity. Nothing would atone for +an insult offered to a lady; and when it was Hind's duty to seize part +of a gentlewoman's dowry on the Petersfield road, he not only pleaded +his necessity in eloquent excuse, but he made many promises on behalf of +knight-errantry and damsels in distress. Never would he extort a trinket +to which association had given a sentimental worth; during a long career +he never left any man, save a Roundhead, penniless upon the road; nor +was it his custom to strip the master without giving the man a trifle +for his pains. His courage, moreover, was equal to his understanding. +Since he was afraid of nothing, it was not his habit to bluster when he +was not determined to have his way. When once his pistol was levelled, +when once the solemn order was given, the victim must either fight +or surrender; and Hind was never the man to decline a combat with any +weapons and in any circumstances. + +Like the true artist that he was, he neglected no detail of his craft. +As he was a perfect shot, so also he was a finished horseman; and his +skill not only secured him against capture, but also helped him to the +theft of such horses as his necessities required, or to the exchange +of a worn-out jade for a mettled prancer. Once upon a time a credulous +farmer offered twenty pounds and his own gelding for the Captain's +mount. Hind struck a bargain at once, and as they jogged along the road +he persuaded the farmer to set his newly-purchased horse at the tallest +hedge, the broadest ditch. The bumpkin failed, as Hind knew he would +fail; and, begging the loan for an instant of his ancient steed, Hind +not only showed what horsemanship could accomplish, but straightway +rode off with the better horse and twenty pounds in his pocket. So +marvellously did his reputation grow, that it became a distinction to be +outwitted by him, and the brains of innocent men were racked to invent +tricks which might have been put upon them by the illustrious Captain. +Thus livelier jests and madder exploits were fathered upon him than +upon any of his kind, and he has remained for two centuries the prime +favourite of the chap-books. + +Robbing alone, he could afford to despise pedantry: did he meet a +traveller who amused his fancy he would give him the pass-word ('the +fiddler's paid,' or what not), as though the highway had not its code +of morals; nor did he scruple, when it served his purpose, to rob the +bunglers of his own profession. By this means, indeed, he raised the +standard of the Road and warned the incompetent to embrace an easier +trade. While he never took a shilling without sweetening his depredation +with a joke, he was, like all humorists, an acute philosopher. 'Remember +what I tell you,' he said to the foolish persons who once attempted to +rob him, the master-thief of England, 'disgrace not yourself for small +sums, but aim high, and for great ones; the least will bring you to the +gallows.' There, in five lines, is the whole philosophy of thieving, and +many a poor devil has leapt from the cart to his last dance because he +neglected the counsel of the illustrious Hind. Among his aversions were +lawyers and thief-catchers. 'Truly I could wish,' he exclaimed in court, +'that full-fed fees were as little used in England among lawyers as the +eating of swine's flesh was among the Jews.' When you remember the terms +of friendship whereon he lived with Moll Cutpurse, his hatred of the +thief-catcher, who would hang his brother for 'the lucre of ten pounds, +which is the reward,' or who would swallow a false oath 'as easily as +one would swallow buttered fish,' is a trifle mysterious. Perhaps before +his death an estrangement divided Hind and Moll. Was it that the Roaring +Girl was too anxious to take the credit of Hind's success? Or did he +harbour the unjust suspicion that when the last descent was made upon +him at the barber's, Moll might have given a friendly warning? + +Of this he made no confession, but the honest thief was ever a liberal +hater of spies and attorneys, and Hind's prudence is unquestioned. +A miracle of intelligence, a master of style, he excelled all his +contemporaries and set up for posterity an unattainable standard. The +eighteenth century flattered him by its imitation; but cowardice and +swagger compelled it to limp many a dishonourable league behind. Despite +the single inspiration of dancing a corant upon the green, Claude Duval, +compared to Hind, was an empty braggart. Captain Stafford spoiled the +best of his effects with a more than brutal vice. Neither Mull-Sack nor +the Golden Farmer, for all their long life and handsome plunder, are +comparable for an instant to the robber of Peters and Bradshaw. They +kept their fist fiercely upon the gold of others, and cared not by +what artifice it was extorted. Hind never took a sovereign meanly; +he approached no enterprise which he did not adorn. Living in a true +Augustan age, he was a classic among highwaymen, the very Virgil of the +Pad. + + + + +MOLL CUTPURSE AND JONATHAN WILD + + + + +I--MOLL CUTPURSE + +THE most illustrious woman of an illustrious age, Moll Cutpurse has +never lacked the recognition due to her genius. She was scarce of age +when the town devoured in greedy admiration the first record of her +pranks and exploits. A year later Middleton made her the heroine of a +sparkling comedy. Thereafter she became the favourite of the rufflers, +the commonplace of the poets. Newgate knew her, and Fleet Street; her +manly figure was as familiar in the Bear Garden as at the Devil Tavern; +courted alike by the thief and his victim, for fifty years she lived +a life brilliant as sunlight, many-coloured as a rainbow. And she is +remembered, after the lapse of centuries, not only as the Queen-Regent +of Misrule, the benevolent tyrant of cly-filers and heavers, of hacks +and blades, but as the incomparable Roaring Girl, free of the playhouse, +who perchance presided with Ben Jonson over the Parliament of Wits. + +She was born in the Barbican at the heyday of England's greatness, four +years after the glorious defeat of the Armada, and had to her father an +honest shoemaker. She came into the world (saith rumour) with her fist +doubled, and even in the cradle gave proof of a boyish, boisterous +disposition. Her girlhood, if the word be not an affront to her mannish +character, was as tempestuous as a wind-blown petticoat. A very 'tomrig +and rump-scuttle,' she knew only the sports of boys: her war-like spirit +counted no excuse too slight for a battle; and so valiant a lad was she +of her hands, so well skilled in cudgel-play, that none ever wrested +a victory from fighting Moll. While other girls were content to hem a +kerchief or mark a sampler, Moll would escape to the Bear Garden, and +there enjoy the sport of baiting, whose loyal patron she remained unto +the end. That which most bitterly affronted her was the magpie talk of +the wenches. 'Why,' she would ask in a fury of indignation, 'why crouch +over the fire with a pack of gossips, when the highway invites you to +romance? Why finger a distaff, when a quarterstaff comes more aptly to +your hand?' + +And thus she grew in age and stature, a stranger to the soft delights +of her sex, her heart still deaf to the trivial voice of love. Had not a +wayward accident cumbered her with a kirtle, she would have sought death +or glory in the wars; she would have gone with Colonel Downe's men upon +the road; she would have sailed to the Spanish Main for pieces of +eight. But the tyranny of womanhood was as yet supreme, and the honest +shoemaker, ignorant of his daughter's talent, bade her take service at a +respectable saddler's, and thus suppress the frowardness of her passion. +Her rebellion was instant. Never would she abandon the sword and +the wrestling-booth for the harmless bodkin and the hearthstone of +domesticity. Being absolute in refusal, she was kidnapped by her friends +and sent on board a ship, bound for Virginia and slavery. There, in the +dearth of womankind, even so sturdy a wench as Moll might have found +a husband; but the enterprise was little to her taste, and, always +resourceful, she escaped from shipboard before the captain had weighed +his anchor. + +Henceforth she resolved her life should be free and chainless as the +winds. Never more should needle and thread tempt her to a womanish +inactivity. As Hercules, whose counterpart she was, changed his club for +the distaff of Omphale, so would she put off the wimple and bodice of +her sex for jerkin and galligaskins. If she could not allure manhood, +then would she brave it. And though she might not cross swords with her +country's foes, at least she might levy tribute upon the unjustly rich, +and confront an enemy wherever there was a full pocket. + +Her entrance into a gang of thieves was beset by no difficulty. The Bear +Garden, always her favourite resort, had made her acquainted with all +the divers and rumpads of the town. The time, moreover, was favourable +to enterprise, and once again was genius born into a golden age. The +cutting of purses was an art brought to perfection, and already the more +elegant practice of picking pockets was understood. The transition gave +scope for endless ingenuity, and Moll was not slow in mastering the +theory of either craft. It was a changing fashion of dress, as I have +said, which forced a new tactic upon the thief; the pocket was invented +because the hanging purse was too easy a prey for the thievish scissors. +And no sooner did the world conceal its wealth in pockets than the +cly-filer was born to extract the booty with his long, nimble fingers. +The trick was managed with an admirable forethought, which has been a +constant example to after ages. The file was always accompanied by a +bull, whose duty it was to jostle and distract the victim while his +pockets were rifled. The bung, or what not, was rapidly passed on to the +attendant rub, who scurried off before the cry of STOP THIEF! could be +raised. + +Thus was the craft of thieving practised when Moll was enrolled a humble +member of the gang. Yet nature had not endowed her with the qualities +which ensure an active triumph. 'The best signs and marks of a happy, +industrious hand,' wrote the hoyden, 'is a long middle finger, equally +suited with that they call the fool's or first finger.' Now, though she +was never a clumsy jade, the practice of sword-play and quarterstaff had +not refined the industry of her hands, which were the rather framed +for strength than for delicacy. So that though she served a willing +apprenticeship, and eagerly shared the risks of her chosen trade, the +fear of Newgate and Tyburn weighed heavily upon her spirit, and she cast +about her for a method of escape. Avoiding the danger of discovery, she +was loth to forego her just profit, and hoped that intelligence might +atone for her sturdy, inactive fingers. Already she had endeared herself +to the gang by unnumbered acts of kindness and generosity; already her +inflexible justice had made her umpire in many a difficult dispute. If a +rascal could be bought off at the gallows' foot, there was Moll with +an open purse; and so speedily did she penetrate all the secrets of +thievish policy, that her counsel and comfort were soon indispensable. + +Here, then, was her opportunity. Always a diplomatist rather than +a general, she gave up the battlefield for the council chamber. She +planned the robberies which defter hands achieved; and, turning herself +from cly-filer to fence, she received and changed to money all the +watches and trinkets stolen by the gang. + +Were a citizen robbed upon the highway, he straightway betook himself to +Moll, and his property was presently returned him at a handsome price. +Her house, in short, became a brokery. Hither the blades and divers +brought their purchases, and sought the ransom; hither came the outraged +victims to buy again the jewels and rings which thievish fingers +had pinched. With prosperity her method improved, until at last her +statesmanship controlled the remotest details of the craft. Did one of +her gang get to work overnight and carry off a wealthy swag, she had due +intelligence of the affair betimes next morning, so that, furnished +with an inventory of the booty, she might make a just division, or be +prepared for the advent of the rightful owner. + +So she gained a complete ascendency over her fellows. And when once her +position was assured, she came forth a pitiless autocrat. Henceforth the +gang existed for her pleasure, not she for the gang's; and she was as +urgent to punish insubordination as is an empress to avenge the heinous +sin of treason. The pickpocket who had claimed her protection knew no +more the delight of freedom. If he dared conceal the booty that was +his, he had an enemy more powerful than the law, and many a time did +contumacy pay the last penalty at the gallows. But the faithful also had +their reward, for Moll never deserted a comrade, and while she lived +in perfect safety herself she knew well how to contrive the safety of +others. Nor was she content merely to discharge those duties of the +fence for which an instinct of statecraft designed her. Her restless +brain seethed with plans of plunder, and if her hands were idle it was +her direction that emptied half the pockets in London. Having drilled +her army of divers to an unparalleled activity, she cast about for some +fresh method of warfare, and so enrolled a regiment of heavers, who +would lurk at the mercers' doors for an opportunity to carry off ledgers +and account-books. The price of redemption was fixed by Moll herself, +and until the mercers were aroused by frequent losses to a quicker +vigilance, the trade was profitably secure. + +Meanwhile new clients were ever seeking her aid, and, already empress +of the thieves, she presently aspired to the friendship and patronage +of the highwaymen. Though she did not dispose of their booty, she was +appointed their banker, and vast was the treasure entrusted to the +coffers of honest Moll. Now, it was her pride to keep only the best +company, for she hated stupidity worse than a clumsy hand, and they were +men of wit and spirit who frequented her house. Thither came the famous +Captain Hind, the Regicides' inveterate enemy, whose lofty achievements +Moll, with an amiable extravagance, was wont to claim for her own. +Thither came the unamiably notorious Mull Sack, who once emptied +Cromwell's pocket on the Mall, and whose courage was as formidable as +his rough-edged tongue. Another favourite was the ingenious Crowder, +whose humour it was to take the road habited like a bishop, and who +surprised the victims of his greed with ghostly counsel. Thus it was a +merry party that assembled in the lady's parlour, loyal to the memory of +the martyred king, and quick to fling back an offending pleasantry. + +But the house in Fleet Street was a refuge as well as a resort, the +sanctuary of a hundred rascals, whose misdeeds were not too flagrantly +discovered. For, while Moll always allowed discretion to govern her +conduct, while she would risk no present security for a vague promise +of advantages to come, her secret influence in Newgate made her more +powerful than the hangman and the whole bench of judges. There was +no turnkey who was not her devoted servitor, but it was the clerk of +Newgate to whom she and her family were most deeply beholden. This was +one Ralph Briscoe, as pretty a fellow as ever deserted the law for a +bull-baiting. Though wizened and clerkly in appearance, he was of a +lofty courage; and Moll was heard to declare that had she not been sworn +to celibacy, she would have cast an eye upon the faithful Ralph, who was +obedient to her behests whether at Gaol Delivery or Bear Garden. For her +he would pack a jury or get a reprieve; for him she would bait a bull +with the fiercest dogs in London. Why then should she fear the law, when +the clerk of Newgate and Gregory the Hangman fought upon her side? + +For others the arbiter of life and death, she was only thrice in an +unexampled career confronted with the law. Her first occasion of arrest +was so paltry that it brought discredit only on the constable. This +jack-in-office, a very Dogberry, encountered Moll returning down Ludgate +Hill from some merry-making, a lanthorn carried pompously before her. +Startled by her attire he questioned her closely, and receiving insult +for answer, promptly carried her to the Round House. The customary +garnish made her free or the prison, and next morning a brief interview +with the Lord Mayor restored Moll to liberty but not to forgetfulness. + +She had yet to wreak her vengeance upon the constable for a monstrous +affront, and hearing presently that he had a rich uncle in Shropshire, +she killed the old gentleman (in imagination) and made the constable his +heir. Instantly a retainer, in the true garb and accent of the country, +carried the news to Dogberry, and sent him off to Ludlow on the +costliest of fool's errands. He purchased a horse and set forth +joyously, as became a man of property; he limped home, broken in purse +and spirit, the hapless object of ridicule and contempt. Perhaps he +guessed the author of this sprightly outrage; but Moll, for her part, +was far too finished a humorist to reveal the truth, and hereafter she +was content to swell the jesting chorus. + +Her second encounter with justice was no mere pleasantry, and it was +only her marvellous generalship that snatched her career from untimely +ruin and herself from the clutch of Master Gregory. Two of her +emissaries had encountered a farmer in Chancery Lane. They spoke with +him first at Smithfield, and knew that his pocket was well lined with +bank-notes. An improvised quarrel at a tavern-door threw the farmer off +his guard, and though he defended the money, his watch was snatched from +his fob and duly carried to Moll. The next day the victim, anxious to +repurchase his watch, repaired to Fleet Street, where Moll generously +promised to recover the stolen property. Unhappily security had +encouraged recklessness, and as the farmer turned to leave he espied +his own watch hanging among other trinkets upon the wall. With a rare +discretion he held his peace until he had called a constable to his aid, +and this time the Roaring Girl was lodged in Newgate, with an ugly crime +laid to her charge. + +Committed for trial, she demanded that the watch should be left in the +constable's keeping, and, pleading not guilty when the sessions came +round, insisted that her watch and the farmer's were not the same. The +farmer, anxious to acknowledge his property, demanded the constable to +deliver the watch, that it might be sworn to in open court; and when the +constable put his hand to his pocket the only piece of damning evidence +had vanished, stolen by the nimble fingers of one of Moll's officers. + +Thus with admirable trickery and a perfect sense of dramatic effect +she contrived her escape, and never again ran the risk of a sudden +discovery. For experience brought caution in its train, and though this +wiliest of fences lived almost within the shadow of Newgate, though she +was as familiar in the prison yard as at the Globe Tavern, her nightly +resort, she obeyed the rules of life and law with so precise an +exactitude that suspicion could never fasten upon her. Her kingdom was +midway between robbery and justice. And as she controlled the mystery +of thieving so, in reality, she meted out punishment to the evildoer. +Honest citizens were robbed with small risk to life or property. For +Moll always frowned upon violence, and was ever ready to restore the +booty for a fair ransom. And the thieves, driven by discipline to a +certain humanity, plied their trade with an obedience and orderliness +hitherto unknown. Moll's then was no mean achievement. Her career was +not circumscribed by her trade, and the Roaring Girl, the daredevil +companion of the wits and bloods, enjoyed a fame no less glorious than +the Queen of Thieves. + +'Enter Moll in a frieze jerkin and a black safeguard.' Thus in the old +comedy she comes upon the stage; and truly it was by her clothes that +she was first notorious. By accident a woman, by habit a man, she must +needs invent a costume proper to her pursuits. But she was no shrieking +reformer, no fanatic spying regeneration in a pair of breeches. Only in +her attire she showed her wit; and she went to a bull-baiting in such a +dress as well became her favourite sport. She was not of those who 'walk +in spurs but never ride.' The jerkin, the doublet, the galligaskins +were put on to serve the practical purposes of life, not to attract the +policeman or the spinster. And when a petticoat spread its ample folds +beneath the doublet, not only was her array handsome, but it symbolised +the career of one who was neither man nor woman, and yet both. After a +while, however, the petticoat seemed too tame for her stalwart temper, +and she exchanged it for the great Dutch slop, habited in which unseemly +garment she is pictured in the ancient prints. + + +Up and down the town she romped and scolded, earning the name which +Middleton gave her in her green girlhood. 'She has the spirit of four +great parishes,' says the wit in the comedy, 'and a voice that will +drown all the city.' If a gallant stood in the way, she drew upon him in +an instant, and he must be a clever swordsman to hold his ground against +the tomboy who had laid low the German fencer himself. A good fellow +always, she had ever a merry word for the passer-by, and so sharp was +her tongue that none ever put a trick upon her. Not to know Moll was to +be inglorious, and she 'slipped from one company to another like a fat +eel between a Dutchman's fingers.' Now at Parker's Ordinary, now at the +Bear Garden, she frequented only the haunts of men, and not until old +age came upon her did she endure patiently the presence of women. + +Her voice and speech were suited to the galligaskin. She was a +true disciple of Maltre Francois, hating nothing so much as mincing +obscenity, and if she flavoured her discourse with many a blasphemous +quip, the blasphemy was 'not so malicious as customary.' Like the blood +she was, she loved good ale and wine; and she regarded it among her +proudest titles to renown that she was the first of women to smoke +tobacco. Many was the pound of best Virginian that she bought of +Mistress Gallipot, and the pipe, with monkey, dog, and eagle, is her +constant emblem. Her antic attire, the fearless courage of her pranks, +now and again involved her in disgrace or even jeopardised her freedom; +but her unchanging gaiety made light of disaster, and still she laughed +and rollicked in defiance of prude and pedant. + +Her companion in many a fantastical adventure was Banks, the vintner of +Cheapside, that same Banks who taught his horse to dance and shod +him with silver. Now once upon a time a right witty sport was devised +between them. The vintner bet Moll L20 that she would not ride from +Charing Cross to Shoreditch astraddle on horseback, in breeches and +doublet, boots and spurs. + +The hoyden took him up in a moment, and added of her own devilry a +trumpet and banner. She set out from Charing Cross bravely enough, and +a trumpeter being an unwonted spectacle, the eyes of all the town were +clapped upon her. Yet none knew her until she reached Bishopsgate, where +an orange-wench set up the cry, 'Moll Cutpurse on horseback!' Instantly +the cavalier was surrounded by a noisy mob. Some would have torn her +from the saddle for an imagined insult upon womanhood, others, more +wisely minded, laughed at the prank with good-humoured merriment. Every +minute the throng grew denser, and it had fared hardly with roystering +Moll, had not a wedding and the arrest of a debtor presently distracted +the gaping idlers. As the mob turned to gaze at the fresh wonder, she +spurred her horse until she gained Newington by an unfrequented lane. +There she waited until night should cover her progress to Shoreditch, +and thus peacefully she returned home to lighten the vintner's pocket of +twenty pounds. + +The fame of the adventure spread abroad, and that the scandal should +not be repeated Moll was summoned before the Court of Arches to answer a +charge of appearing publicly in mannish apparel. The august tribunal +had no terror for her, and she received her sentence to do penance in a +white sheet at Paul's Cross during morning-service on a Sunday with an +audacious contempt. 'They might as well have shamed a black dog as me,' +she proudly exclaimed; and why should she dread the white sheet, +when all the spectators looked with a lenient eye upon her professed +discomfiture?' For a halfpenny,' she said, 'she would have travelled +to every market-town of England in the guise of a penitent,' and having +tippled off three quarts of sack she swaggered to Paul's Cross in the +maddest of humours. But not all the courts on earth could lengthen her +petticoat, or contract the Dutch slop by a single fold. For a while, +perhaps, she chastened her costume, yet she soon reverted to the ancient +mode, and to her dying day went habited as a man. + +As bear baiting was the passion of her life, so she was scrupulous in +the care and training of her dogs. She gave them each a trundle-bed, +wrapping them from the cold in sheets and blankets, while their food +would not have dishonoured a gentleman's table. Parrots, too, gave a +sense of colour and companionship to her house; and it was in this love +of pets, and her devotion to cleanliness, that she showed a trace of +dormant womanhood. Abroad a ribald and a scold, at home she was the +neatest of housewives, and her parlour, with its mirrors and its +manifold ornaments, was the envy of the neighbours. So her trade +flourished, and she lived a life of comfort, of plenty even, until the +Civil War threw her out of work. When an unnatural conflict set the +whole country at loggerheads, what occasion was there for the honest +prig? And it is not surprising that, like all the gentlemen adventurers +of the age, Moll remained most stubbornly loyal to the King's cause. +She made the conduit in Fleet Street run with wine when Charles came to +London in 1638; and it was her amiable pleasantry to give the name of +Strafford to a clever, cunning bull, and to dub the dogs that assailed +him Pym, Hampden, and the rest, that right heartily she might applaud +the courage of Strafford as he threw off his unwary assailants. + +So long as the quarrel lasted, she was compelled to follow a profession +more ancient than the fence's; for there is one passion which war itself +cannot extinguish. When once the King had laid his head 'down as upon a +bed,' when once the Protector had proclaimed his supremacy, the industry +of the road revived; and there was not a single diver or rumpad that +did not declare eternal war upon the black-hearted Regicides. With +a laudable devotion to her chosen cause, Moll despatched the most +experienced of her gang to rob Lady Fairfax on her way to church; and +there is a tradition that the Roaring Girl, hearing that Fairfax himself +would pass by Hounslow, rode forth to meet him, and with her own voice +bade him stand and deliver. One would like to believe it; yet it is +scarce credible. If Fairfax had spent the balance of an ignominious +career in being plundered by a band of loyal brigands, he would not +have had time to justify the innumerable legends of pockets emptied +and pistols levelled at his head. Moreover, Moll herself was laden +with years, and she had always preferred the council chamber to the +battlefield. But it is certain that, with Captain Hind and Mull Sack to +aid, she schemed many a clever plot against the Roundheads, and nobly +she played her part in avenging the martyred King. + +Thus she declined into old age, attended, like Queen Mary, by her maids, +who would card, reel, spin, and beguile her leisure with sweet singing. +Though her spirit was untamed, the burden of her years compelled her to +a tranquil life. She, who formerly never missed a bull-baiting, must now +content herself with tick-tack. Her fortune, moreover, had been wrecked +in the Civil War. Though silver shells still jingled in her pocket, time +was she knew the rattle of the yellow boys. But she never lost courage, +and died at last of a dropsy, in placid contentment with her lot. +Assuredly she was born at a time well suited to her genius. Had she +lived to-day, she might have been a 'Pioneer'; she might even have +discussed some paltry problem of sex in a printed obscenity. + +In her own freer, wiser age, she was not man's detractor, but his rival; +and if she never knew the passion of love, she was always loyal to +the obligation of friendship. By her will she left twenty pounds to +celebrate the Second Charles's restoration to his kingdom; and you +contemplate her career with the single regret that she died a brief year +before the red wine, thus generously bestowed, bubbled at the fountain. + + + + +II--JONATHAN WILD + +WHEN Jonathan Wild and the Count La Ruse, in Fielding's narrative, took +a hand at cards, Jonathan picked his opponent's pocket, though he knew +it was empty, while the Count, from sheer force of habit, stacked the +cards, though Wild had not a farthing to lose. And if in his uncultured +youth the great man stooped to prig with his own hand, he was early +cured of the weakness: so that Fielding's picture of the hero taking a +bottle-screw from the Ordinary's pocket in the very moment of death is +entirely fanciful. For 'this Machiavel of Thieves,' as a contemporary +styled him, left others to accomplish what his ingenuity had planned. +His was the high policy of theft. If he lived on terms of familiar +intimacy with the mill-kens, the bridle-culls, the buttock-and-files +of London, he was none the less the friend and minister of justice. He +enjoyed the freedom of Newgate and the Old Bailey. He came and went as +he liked: he packed juries, he procured bail, he manufactured evidence; +and there was scarce an assize or a sessions passed but he slew his man. + +The world knew him for a robber, yet could not refuse his brilliant +service. At the Poultry Counter, you are told, he laid the foundations +of his future greatness, and to the Poultry Counter he was committed for +some trifling debt ere he had fully served his apprenticeship to the +art and mystery of buckle-making. There he learned his craft, and at his +enlargement he was able forthwith to commence thief-catcher. His plan +was conceived with an effrontery that was nothing less than genius. +On the one side he was the factor, or rather the tyrant, of the +cross-coves: on the other he was the trusted agent of justice, the +benefactor of the outraged and the plundered. Among his earliest +exploits was the recovery of the Countess of G--d--n's chair, impudently +carried off when her ladyship had but just alighted; and the courage +wherewith he brought to justice the murderers of one Mrs. Knap, who had +been slain for some trifling booty, established his reputation as upon +a rock. He at once advertised himself in the public prints as +Thief-Catcher General of Great Britain and Ireland, and proceeded to +send to the gallows every scoundrel that dared dispute his position. + +His opportunities of gain were infinite. Even if he did not organise +the robbery which his cunning was presently to discover, he had spies in +every hole and corner to set him on the felon's track. Nor did he leave +a single enterprise to chance: 'He divided the city and suburbs into +wards or divisions, and appointed the persons who were to attend each +ward, and kept them strictly to their duty.' If a subordinate dared +to disobey or to shrink from murder, Jonathan hanged him at the next +assize, and happily for him he had not a single confederate whose neck +he might not put in the halter when he chose. Thus he preserved the +union and the fidelity of his gang, punishing by judicial murder the +smallest insubordination, the faintest suspicion of rivalry. Even when +he had shut his victim up in Newgate, he did not leave him so long as +there was a chance of blackmail. He would make the most generous offers +of evidence and defence to every thief that had a stiver left him. +But whether or not he kept his bargain--that depended upon policy and +inclination. On one occasion, when he had brought a friend to the Old +Bailey, and relented at the last moment, he kept the prosecutor drunk +from the noble motive of self-interest, until the case was over. And so +esteemed was he of the officers of the law that even this interference +did but procure a reprimand. + +His meanest action marked him out from his fellows, but it was not until +he habitually pillaged the treasures he afterwards restored to their +grateful owners for a handsome consideration, that his art reached the +highest point of excellence. The event was managed by him with amazing +adroitness from beginning to end. + +It was he who discovered the wealth and habit of the victim; it was he +who posted the thief and seized the plunder, giving a paltry commission +to his hirelings for the trouble; it was he who kept whatever valuables +were lost in the transaction; and as he was the servant of the Court, +discovery or inconvenience was impossible. Surely the Machiavel of +Thieves is justified of his title. He was known to all the rich and +titled folk in town; and if he was generally able to give them back +their stolen valuables at something more than double their value, he +treated his clients with a most proper insolence. When Lady M--n was +unlucky enough to lose a silver buckle at Windsor, she asked Wild to +recover it, and offered the hero twenty pounds for his trouble. 'Zounds, +Madam,' says he, 'you offer nothing. It cost the gentleman who took it +forty pounds for his coach, equipage, and other expenses to Windsor.' +His impudence increased with success, and in the geniality of his cups +he was wont to boast his amazing rogueries: 'hinting not without vanity +at the poor Understandings of the Greatest Part of Mankind, and his own +Superior Cunning.' + +In fifteen years he claimed L10,000 for his dividend of recovered +plunderings, and who shall estimate the moneys which flowed to his +treasury from blackmail and the robberies of his gang? So brisk became +his trade in jewels and the precious metals that he opened relations +with Holland, and was master of a fleet. His splendour increased with +wealth: he carried a silver-mounted sword, and a footman tramped at +his heels. 'His table was very splendid,' says a biographer: 'he +seldom dining under five Dishes, the Reversions whereof were generally +charitably bestow'd on the Commonside felons.' At his second marriage +with Mrs. Mary D--n, the hempen widow of Scull D--n, his humour was most +happily expressed: he distributed white ribbons among the turnkeys, he +gave the Ordinary gloves and favours, he sent the prisoners of Newgate +several ankers of brandy for punch. 'Twas a fitting complaisance, since +his fortune was drawn from Newgate, and since he was destined himself, a +few years later, to drink punch--'a liquor nowhere spoken against in +the Scriptures'--with the same Ordinary whom he thus magnificently +decorated. Endowed with considerable courage, for a while he had the +prudence to save his skin, and despite his bravado he was known on +occasion to yield a plundered treasure to an accomplice who set a pistol +to his head. But it is certain that the accomplice died at Tyburn for +his pains, and on equal terms Jonathan was resolute with the best. On +the trail he was savage as a wild beast. When he arrested James Wright +for a robbery committed upon the persons of the Earl of B--l--n and the +Lord Bruce, he held on to the victim's chin by his teeth--an exploit +which reminds you of the illustrious Tiger Roche. + +Even in his lifetime he was generously styled the Great. The scourge of +London, he betrayed and destroyed every man that ever dared to live +upon terms of friendship with him. It was Jonathan that made Blueskin a +thief, and Jonathan screened his creature from justice only so long as +clemency seemed profitable. At the first hint of disobedience Blueskin +was committed to Newgate. When he had stood his trial, and was being +taken to the Condemned Hole, he beckoned to Wild as though to a +conference, and cut his throat with a penknife. The assembled rogues and +turnkeys thought their Jonathan dead at last, and rejoiced exceedingly +therein. Straightway the poet of Newgate's Garland leaped into verse: + + Then hopeless of life, + He drew his penknife, + And made a sad widow of Jonathan's wife. + But forty pounds paid her, her grief shall appease, + And every man round me may rob, if he please. + +But Jonathan recovered, and Molly, his wife, was destined a second time +to win the conspicuous honour that belongs to a hempen widow. + +As his career drew to its appointed close, Fortune withheld her smiles. +'People got so peery,' complained the great man, 'that ingenious +men were put to dreadful shifts.' And then, highest tribute to his +greatness, an Act of Parliament was passed which made it a capital +offence 'for a prig to steal with the hands of other people'; and in the +increase of public vigilance his undoing became certain. On the 2nd of +January, 1725, a day not easy to forget, a creature of Wild's spoke +with fifty yards of lace, worth L40, at his Captain's bidding, and Wild, +having otherwise disposed of the plunder, was charged on the 10th of +March that he 'did feloniously receive of Katharine Stetham ten guineas +on account and under colour of helping the said Katharine Stetham to +the said lace again, and did not then, nor any time since, discover +or apprehend, or cause to be apprehended and brought to Justice, the +persons that committed the said felony.' Thus runs the indictment, and, +to the inexpressible relief of lesser men, Jonathan Wild was condemned +to the gallows. + +Thereupon he had serious thoughts of 'putting his house in order'; with +an ironical smile he demanded an explanation of the text: 'Cursed is +every one that hangeth on a tree'; but, presently reflecting that 'his +Time was but short in this World, he improved it to the best advantage +in Eating, Drinking, Swearing, Cursing, and talking to his Visitants.' +For all his bragging, drink alone preserved his courage: 'he was very +restless in the Condemned Hole,' though 'he gave little or no attention +to the condemned Sermon which the purblind Ordinary preached before +him,' and which was, in Fielding's immortal phrase, 'unto the Greeks +foolishness.' But in the moment of death his distinction returned to +him. He tried, and failed, to kill himself; and his progress to the +nubbing cheat was a triumph of execration. He reached Tyburn through a +howling mob, and died to a yell of universal joy. + +The Ordinary has left a record so precious and so lying, that it must +needs be quoted at length. The great Thief-Catcher's confession is +a masterpiece of comfort, and is so far removed from the truth as +completely to justify Fielding's incomparable creation. 'Finding there +was no room for mercy (and how could I expect mercy, who never showed +any)'--thus does the devil dodger dishonour our Jonathan's memory!--'as +soon as I came into the Condemned Hole, I began to think of making a +preparation for my soul. . . . To part with my wife, my dear Molly, is +so great an Affliction to me, that it touches me to the Quick, and is +like Daggers entering into my Heart.' How tame the Ordinary's falsehood +to the brilliant invention of Fielding, who makes Jonathan kick his +Tishy in the very shadow of the Tree! And the Reverend Gentleman gains +in unction as he goes: 'In the Cart they all kneeled down to prayers and +seemed very penitent; the Ordinary used all the means imaginable to make +them think of another World, and after singing a penitential Psalm, they +cry'd Lord Jesus Christ receive our Souls, the cart drew away and they +were all turned off. This is as good an account as can be given by me.' +Poor Ordinary! If he was modest, he was also untruthful, and you are +certain that it was not thus the hero met his death. + +Even had Fielding never written his masterpiece, Jonathan Wild would +still have been surnamed 'The Great.' For scarce a chap-book appeared in +the year of Jonathan's death that did not expose the only right and +true view of his character. 'His business,' says one hack of prison +literature, 'at all times was to put a false gloss upon things, and +to make fools of mankind.' Another precisely formulates the theory +of greatness insisted upon by Fielding with so lavish an irony and so +masterly a wit. While it is certain that The History of the Late Mr. +Jonathan Wild is as noble a piece of irony as literature can show, while +for the qualities of wit and candour it is equal to its motive, it is +likewise true that therein you meet the indubitable Jonathan Wild. It +is an entertainment to compare the chap-books of the time with the +reasoned, finished work of art: not in any spirit of pedantry--since +accuracy in these matters is of small account, but with intent to show +how doubly fortunate Fielding was in his genius and in his material. Of +course the writer rejoiced in the aid of imagination and eloquence; +of course he embellished his picture with such inspirations as Miss +Laetitia and the Count; of course he preserves from the first page to +the last the highest level of unrivalled irony. But the sketch was +there before him, and a lawyer's clerk had treated Jonathan in a vein of +heroism within a few weeks of his death. And since a plain statement +is never so true as fiction, Fielding's romance is still more credible, +still convinces with an easier effort, than the serious and pedestrian +records of contemporaries. Nor can you return to its pages without +realising that, so far from being 'the evolution of a purely +intellectual conception,' Jonathan Wild is a magnificently idealised and +ironical portrait of a great man. + + + + +III--A PARALLEL + +(MOLL CUTPURSE AND JONATHAN WILD) + + +THEY plied the same trade, each with incomparable success. By her, as +by him, the art of the fence was carried to its ultimate perfection. In +their hands the high policy of theft wanted nor dignity nor assurance. +Neither harboured a single scheme which was not straightway translated +into action, and they were masters at once of Newgate and the Highway. +As none might rob without the encouragement of his emperor, so none +was hanged at Tyburn while intrigue or bribery might avail to drag a +half-doomed neck from the halter; and not even Moll herself was +more bitterly tyrannical in the control of a reckless gang than the +thin-jawed, hatchet-faced Jonathan Wild. + +They were statesmen rather than warriors--happy if they might direct +the enterprises of others, and determined to punish the lightest +disobedience by death. The mind of each was readier than his right arm, +and neither would risk an easy advantage by a misunderstood or unwonted +sleight of hand. But when you leave the exercise of their craft to +contemplate their character with a larger eye, it is the woman who at +every point has the advantage. Not only was she the peerless inventor +of a new cunning; she was at home (and abroad) the better fellow. The +suppression of sex was in itself an unparalleled triumph, and the +most envious detractor could not but marvel at the domination of her +womanhood. Moreover, she shone in a gayer, more splendid epoch. +The worthy contemporary of Shakespeare, she had small difficulty in +performing feats of prowess and resource which daunted the intrepid +ruffians of the eighteenth century. Her period, in brief, gave her an +eternal superiority; and it were as hopeless for Otway to surpass +the master whom he disgraced, as for Wild to o'ershadow the brilliant +example of Moll Cutpurse. + +Tyrants both, they exercised their sovereignty in accordance with their +varying temperament. Hers was a fine, fat, Falstaffian humour, which, +while it inspired Middleton, might have suggested to Shakespeare an +equal companion of the drunken knight. His was but a narrow, cynic wit, +not edged like the knife, which wellnigh cut his throat, but blunt and +scratching like a worn-toothed saw. + +She laughed with a laugh that echoed from Ludgate to Charing Cross, and +her voice drowned all the City. He grinned rarely and with malice; +he piped in a voice shrill and acid as the tricks of his mischievous +imagination. She knew no cruelty beyond the necessities of her life, +and none regretted more than she the inevitable death of a traitor. +He lusted after destruction with a fiendish temper, which was a grim +anticipation of De Sade; he would even smile as he saw the noose tighten +round the necks of the poor innocents he had beguiled to Tyburn. It was +his boast that he had contrived robberies for the mere glory of dragging +his silly victims to the gallows. But Moll, though she stood half-way +between the robber and his prey, would have sacrificed a hundred +well-earned commissions rather than see her friends and comrades +strangled. Her temperament compelled her to the loyal support of her own +order, and she would have shrunk in horror from her rival, who, for all +his assumed friendship with the thief, was a staunch and subtle ally of +justice. + +Before all things she had the genius of success. Her public offences +were trivial and condoned. She died in her bed, full of years and of +honours, beloved by the light-fingered gentry, reverenced by all the +judges on the bench. He, for all the sacrifices he made to a squint-eyed +law, died execrated alike by populace and police. Already Blueskin had +done his worst with a pen-knife; already Jack Sheppard and his comrades +had warned Drury Lane against the infamous thief-catcher. And so +anxious, on the other hand, was the law to be quit of their too zealous +servant, that an Act of Parliament was passed with the sole object of +placing Jonathan's head within the noose. His method, meagre though +masterly, lulled him too soon to an impotent security. She, with her +larger view of life, her plumper sense of style, was content with +nothing less than an ultimate sovereignty, and manifestly did she prove +her superiority. + +Though born for the wimple, she was more of a man than the breeched +and stockinged Jonathan, whose only deed of valiance was to hang, +terrier-like, by his teeth to an evasive enemy. While he cheated +at cards and cogged the dice, she trained dogs and never missed a +bear-baiting. He shrank, like the coward that he was, from the exercise +of manly sports; she cared not what were the weapons--quarterstaff or +broadsword--so long as she vanquished her opponent. She scoured the town +in search of insult; he did but exert his cunning when a quarrel was put +upon him. Who, then, shall deny her manhood? Who shall whisper that his +style was the braver or the better suited to his sex? + +As became a hero, she kept the best of loose company: her parlour was +ever packed with the friends of loyalty and adventure. Are not Hind and +Mull Sack worth a thousand Blueskins? Moreover, plunder and wealth were +not the only objects of her pursuit: she was not merely a fence but a +patriot, and she would have accounted a thousand pounds well lost, if +she did but compass the discomfiture of a Parliament-man. Indeed, if +Jonathan, the thief-catcher, limped painfully after his magnificent +example, Jonathan the man and the sportsman confessed a pitiful +inferiority to the valiant Moll. Thus she avenged her sex by distancing +the most illustrious of her rivals; and if he pleads for his credit a +taste for theology, hers is the chuckle of contemptuous superiority. She +died a patriot, bequeathing a fountain of wine to the champions of +an exiled king; he died a casuist, setting crabbed problems to the +Ordinary. Here, again, the advantage is evident: loyalty is the virtue +of men; a sudden attachment to religion is the last resource of the +second-rate citizen and of the trapped criminal. + + + + +RALPH BRISCOE + + +A SPARE, lean frame; a small head set forward upon a pair of sloping +shoulders; a thin, sharp nose, and rat-like eyes; a flat, hollow chest; +shrunk shanks, modestly retreating from their snuff-coloured hose--these +are the tokens which served to remind his friends of Ralph Briscoe, the +Clerk of Newgate. As he left the prison in the grey air of morning +upon some errand of mercy or revenge, he appeared the least fearsome of +mortals, while an awkward limp upon his left toe deepened the impression +of timidity. So abstract was his manner, so hesitant his gait, that he +would hug the wall as he went, nervously stroking its grimy surface with +his long, twittering fingers. But Ralph, as justice and the Jug knew +too well, was neither fool nor coward. His character belied his outward +seeming. A large soul had crept into the case of his wizened body, and +if a poltroon among his ancestors had gifted him with an alien type, he +had inherited from some nameless warrior both courage and resource. + +He was born in easy circumstances, and gently nurtured in the distant +village of Kensington. Though cast in a scholar's mould, and very apt +for learning, he rebelled from the outset against a career of inaction. +His lack of strength was never a check upon his high stomach; he would +fight with boys of twice his size, and accept the certain defeat in a +cheerful spirit of dogged pugnacity. Moreover, if his arms were weak, +his cunning was as keen-edged as his tongue; and, before his stricken +eye had paled, he had commonly executed an ample vengeance upon his +enemy. Nor was it industry that placed him at the top of the class. A +ready wit made him master of the knowledge he despised. + +But he would always desert his primer to follow the hangman's lumbering +cart up Tyburn Hill, and, still a mere imp of mischief, he would run +the weary way from Kensington to Shoe Lane on the distant chance of a +cock-fight. He was present, so he would relate in after years, when Sir +Thomas Jermin's man put his famous trick upon the pit. With a hundred +pounds in his pocket and under his arm a dunghill cock, neatly trimmed +for the fray, the ingenious ruffian, as Briscoe would tell you, went off +to Shoe Lane, persuaded an accomplice to fight the cock in Sir Thomas +Jermin's name, and laid a level hundred against his own bird. So lofty +was Sir Thomas's repute that backers were easily found, but the dunghill +rooster instantly showed a clean pair of heels, and the cheat was +justified of his cunning. + +Thus Ralph Briscoe learnt the first lessons in that art of sharping +wherein he was afterwards an adept; and when he left school his head +was packed with many a profitable device which no book learning could +impart. His father, however, still resolute that he should join an +intelligent profession, sent him to Gray's Inn that he might study law. +Here the elegance of his handwriting gained him a rapid repute; his +skill became the envy of all the lean-souled clerks in the Inn, and he +might have died a respectable attorney had not the instinct of sport +forced him from the inkpot and parchment of his profession. Ill could +he tolerate the monotony and restraint of this clerkly life. In his eyes +law was an instrument, not of justice, but of jugglery. Men were born, +said his philosophy, rather to risk their necks than ink their fingers; +and if a bold adventure puts you in a difficulty, why, then, you hire +some straw-splitting attorney to show his cunning. Indeed, the study of +law was for him, as it was for Falstaff, an excuse for many a bout and +merry-making. He loved his glass, and he loved his wench, and he loved +a bull-baiting better than either. It was his boast, and Moll Cutpurse's +compliment, that he never missed a match in his life, and assuredly no +man was better known in Paris Garden than the intrepid Ralph Briscoe. + +The cloistered seclusion of Gray's Inn grew daily more irksome. There +he would sit, in mute despair, drumming the table with his fingers, +and biting the quill, whose use he so bitterly contemned. Of winter +afternoons he would stare through the leaded window-panes at the +gaunt, leafless trees, on whose summits swayed the cawing rooks, +until servitude seemed intolerable, and he prayed for the voice of the +bearward that summoned him to Southwark. And when the chained bear, +the familiar monkey on his back, followed the shrill bagpipe along the +curious street, Briscoe felt that blood, not ink, coursed in his veins, +forgot the tiresome impediment of the law, and joined the throng, hungry +for this sport of kings. Nor was he the patron of an enterprise wherein +he dared take no part. He was as bold and venturesome as the bravest +ruffler that ever backed a dog at a baiting. When the bull, cruelly +secured behind, met the onslaught of his opponents, throwing them off, +now this side, now that, with his horns, Briscoe, lost in excitement, +would leap into the ring that not a point of the combat should escape +him. + +So it was that he won the friendship of his illustrious benefactress, +Moll Cutpurse. For, one day, when he had ventured too near the maddened +bull, the brute made a heave at his breeches, which instantly gave way; +and in another moment he would have been gored to death, had not Moll +seized him by the collar and slung him out of the ring. Thus did his +courage ever contradict his appearance, and at the dangerous game +of whipping the blinded bear he had no rival, either for bravery or +adroitness. He would rush in with uplifted whip until the breath of the +infuriated beast was hot upon his cheek, let his angry lash curl for +an instant across the bear's flank, and then, for all his halting foot, +leap back into safety with a smiling pride in his own nimbleness. + +His acquaintance with Moll Cutpurse, casually begun at a bull-baiting, +speedily ripened, for her into friendship, for him into love. In this, +the solitary romance of his life, Ralph Briscoe overtopped even his own +achievements of courage. The Roaring Girl was no more young, and years +had not refined her character unto gentleness. It was still her habit to +appear publicly in jerkin and galligaskins, to smoke tobacco in contempt +of her sex, and to fight her enemies with a very fury of insolence. In +stature she exceeded the limping clerk by a head, and she could pick him +up with one hand, like a kitten. Yet he loved her, not for any grace +of person, nor beauty of feature, nor even because her temperament was +undaunted as his own. He loved her for that wisest of reasons, which is +no reason at all, because he loved her. In his eyes she was the Queen, +not of Misrule, but of Hearts. Had a throne been his, she should have +shared it, and he wooed her with a shy intensity, which ennobled him, +even in her austere regard. Alas! she was unable to return his passion, +and she lamented her own obduracy with characteristic humour. She made +no attempt to conceal her admiration. 'A notable and famous person,' she +called him, confessing that, 'he was right for her tooth, and made to +her mind in every part of him.' He had been bred up in the same exercise +of bull-baiting, which was her own delight; she had always praised his +towardliness, and prophesied his preferment. But when he paid her +court she was obliged to decline the honour, while she esteemed the +compliment. + +In truth, she was completely insensible to passion, or, as she exclaimed +in a phrase of brilliant independence, 'I should have hired him to my +embraces.' + +The sole possibility that remained was a Platonic friendship, and +Briscoe accepted the situation in excellent humour. 'Ever since he came +to know himself,' again it is Moll that speaks, 'he always deported +himself to me with an abundance of regard, calling me his Aunt.' And +his aunt she remained unto the end, bound to him in a proper and natural +alliance. Different as they were in aspect, they were strangely alike +in taste and disposition. Nor was the Paris Garden their only +meeting-ground. + +His sorry sojourn in Gray's Inn had thrown him on the side of the +law-breaker, and he had acquired a strange cunning in the difficult art +of evading justice. Instantly Moll recognised his practical value, and, +exerting all her talent for intrigue, presently secured for him the +Clerkship of Newgate. Here at last he found scope not only for his +learning, but for that spirit of adventure that breathed within him. His +meagre acquaintance with letters placed him on a pinnacle high above his +colleagues. Now and then a prisoner proved his equal in wit, but as he +was manifestly superior in intelligence to the Governor, the Ordinary, +and all the warders, he speedily seized and hereafter retained the real +sovereignty of Newgate. + +His early progress was barred by envy and contempt. Why, asked the men +in possession, should this shrivelled stranger filch our privileges? And +Briscoe met their malice with an easy smile, knowing that at all points +he was more than their match. His alliance with Moll stood him in +good stead, and in a few months the twain were the supreme arbiters +of English justice. Should a highwayman seek to save his neck, he must +first pay a fat indemnity to the Newgate Clerk, but, since Moll was the +appointed banker of the whole family, she was quick to sanction whatever +price her accomplice suggested. And Briscoe had a hundred other tricks +whereby he increased his riches and repute. There was no debtor came +to Newgate whom the Clerk would not aid, if he believed the kindness +profitable. Suppose his inquiries gave an assurance of his victim's +recovery, he would house him comfortably, feed him at his own table, +lend him money, and even condescend to win back the generous loan by the +dice-box. + +His civility gave him a general popularity among the prisoners, and his +appearance in the Yard was a signal for a subdued hilarity. He drank +and gambled with the roysterers; he babbled a cheap philosophy with the +erudite; and he sold the necks of all to the highest bidder. Though now +and again he was convicted of mercy or revenge, he commonly held himself +aloof from human passions, and pursued the one sane end of life in an +easy security. The hostility of his colleagues irked him but little. +A few tags of Latin, the friendship of Moll, and a casual threat of +exposure frightened the Governor into acquiescence, but the Ordinary was +more difficult of conciliation. The Clerk had not been long in Newgate +before he saw that between the reverend gentleman and himself there +could be naught save war. Hitherto the Ordinary had reserved to his +own profit the right of intrigue; he it was who had received the +hard-scraped money of the sorrowing relatives, and untied the noose when +it seemed good to him. Briscoe insisted upon a division of labour. 'It +is your business,' he said, 'to save the scoundrels in the other world. +Leave to me the profit of their salvation in this.' And the Clerk +triumphed after his wont: freedom jingled in his pocket; he doled out +comfort, even life, to the oppressed; and he extorted a comfortable +fortune in return for privileges which were never in his gift. + +Without the walls of Newgate the house of his frequentation was the 'Dog +Tavern.' Thither he would wander every afternoon to meet his clients and +to extort blood-money. In this haunt of criminals and pettifoggers no +man was better received than the Newgate Clerk, and while he assumed a +manner of generous cordiality, it was a strange sight to see him wince +when some sturdy ruffian slapped him too strenuously upon the back. He +had a joke and a chuckle for all, and his merry quips, dry as they were, +were joyously quoted to all new-comers. His legal ingenuity appeared +miraculous, and it was confidently asserted in the Coffee House that he +could turn black to white with so persuasive an argument that there was +no Judge on the Bench to confute him. But he was not omnipotent, and his +zeal encountered many a serious check. At times he failed to save the +necks even of his intimates, since, when once a ruffian was notorious, +Moll and the Clerk fought vainly for his release. Thus it was that +Cheney, the famous wrestler, whom Ralph had often backed against all +comers, died at Tyburn. He had been taken by the troopers red-handed +upon the highway. Seized after a desperate resistance, he was wounded +wellnigh to death, and Briscoe quoted a dozen precedents to prove that +he was unfit to be tried or hanged. Argument failing, the munificent +Clerk offered fifty pounds for the life of his friend. But to no +purpose: the valiant wrestler was carried to the cart in a chair, and so +lifted to the gallows, which cured him of his gaping wounds. + +When the Commonwealth administered justice with pedantic severity, +Briscoe's influence still further declined. There was no longer scope +in the State for men of spirit; even the gaols were handed over to the +stern mercy of crop-eared Puritans; Moll herself had fallen upon evil +times; and Ralph Briscoe determined to make a last effort for wealth +and retirement. At the very moment when his expulsion seemed certain, +an heiress was thrown into Newgate upon a charge of murdering a too +importunate suitor. The chain of evidence was complete: the dagger +plunged in his heart was recognised for her own; she was seen to decoy +him to the secret corner of a wood, where his raucous love-making was +silenced for ever. Taken off her guard, she had even hinted confession +of her crime, and nothing but intrigue could have saved her gentle +neck from the gallows. Briscoe, hungry for her money-bags, promised +assistance. He bribed, he threatened, he cajoled, he twisted the law +as only he could twist it, he suppressed honest testimony, he procured +false; in fine, he weakened the case against her with so resistless an +effrontery, that not the Hanging Judge himself could convict the poor +innocent. + +At the outset he had agreed to accept a handsome bribe, but as the trial +approached, his avarice increased, and he would be content with nothing +less than the lady's hand and fortune. Not that he loved her; his heart +was long since given to Moll Cutpurse; but he knew that his career +of depredation was at an end, and it became him to provide for his +declining years. The victim repulsed his suit, regretting a thousand +times that she had stabbed her ancient lover. At last, bidden summarily +to choose between Death and the Clerk, she chose the Clerk, and thus +Ralph Briscoe left Newgate the richest squire in a western county. +Henceforth he farmed his land like a gentleman, drank with those of his +neighbours who would crack a bottle with him, and unlocked the strange +stores of his memory to bumpkins who knew not the name of Newgate. Still +devoted to sport, he hunted the fox, and made such a bull-ring as his +youthful imagination could never have pictured. So he lived a life of +country ease, and died a churchwarden. And he deserved his prosperity, +for he carried the soul of Falstaff in the shrunken body of Justice +Shallow. + + + + +GILDEROY AND THE SIXTEEN-STRING JACK + + + + +I--GILDEROY + + +HE stood six feet ten in his stockinged feet, and was the tallest +ruffian that ever cut a purse or held up a coach on the highway. A +mass of black hair curled over a low forehead, and a glittering eye +intensified his villainous aspect; nor did a deep scar, furrowing his +cheek from end to end, soften the horror of his sudden apparition. +Valiant men shuddered at his approach; women shrank from the distant +echo of his name; for fifteen years he terrorised Scotland from +Caithness to the border; and the most partial chronicler never insulted +his memory with the record of a good deed. + +He was born to a gentle family in the Calendar of Monteith, and was +celebrated even in boyhood for his feats of strength and daring. While +still at school he could hold a hundredweight at arm's-length, and +crumple up a horseshoe like a wisp of hay. The fleetest runner, the most +desperate fighter in the country, he was already famous before his name +was besmirched with crime, and he might have been immortalised as the +Hercules of the seventeenth century, had not his ambition been otherwise +flattered. At the outset, though the inclination was never lacking, +he knew small temptation to break the sterner laws of conduct. His +pleasures were abundantly supplied by his father's generosity, and he +had no need to refrain from such vices as became a gentleman. If he was +no drunkard, it was because his head was equal to the severest strain, +and, despite his forbidding expression, he was always a successful +breaker of hearts. His very masterfulness overcame the most stubborn +resistance; and more than once the pressure of his dishonourable suit +converted hatred into love. At the very time that he was denounced for +Scotland's disgrace, his praises were chanted in many a dejected ballad. +'Gilderoy was a bonny boy,' sang one heart-broken maiden: + + Had roses till his shoon, + His stockings were of silken soy, + Wi' garters hanging doon. + +But in truth he was admired less for his amiability than for that +quality of governance which, when once he had torn the decalogue to +pieces, made him a veritable emperor of crime. + +His father's death was the true beginning of his career. A modest +patrimony was squandered in six months, and Gilderoy had no penny +left wherewith to satisfy the vices which insisted upon indulgence. He +demanded money at all hazards, and money without toil. For a while his +more loudly clamant needs were fulfilled by the amiable simplicity of +his mother, whom he blackmailed with insolence and contempt. And when +she, wearied by his shameless importunity, at last withdrew her +support, he determined upon a monstrous act of vengeance. With a noble +affectation of penitence he visited his home; promised reform at supper; +and said good-night in the broken accent of reconciliation. No sooner +was the house sunk in slumber than he crawled stealthily upstairs in +order to forestall by theft a promised generosity. He opened the door of +the bed-chamber in a hushed silence; but the wrenching of the cofferlid +awoke the sleeper, and Gilderoy, having cut his mother's throat with +an infamous levity, seized whatever money and jewels were in the house, +cruelly maltreated his sister, and laughingly burnt the house to the +ground, that the possibility of evidence might be destroyed. + +Henceforth his method of plunder was assured. It was part of his +philosophy to prevent detection by murder, and the flames from the +burning walls added a pleasure to his lustful eye. His march across +Scotland was marked by slaughtered families and ruined houses. Plunder +was the first cause of his exploits, but there is no doubt that death +and arson were a solace to his fierce spirit; and for a while this +giant of cruelty knew neither check nor hindrance. Presently it became +a superstition with him that death was the inevitable accompaniment +of robbery, and, as he was incapable of remorse, he grew callous, and +neglected the simplest precautions. At Dunkeld he razed a rifled house +to the ground, and with the utmost effrontery repeated the performance +at Aberdeen. But at last he had been tracked by a company of soldiers, +who, that justice might not be cheated of her prey, carried him to gaol, +where after the briefest trial he was condemned to death. + +Gilderoy, however, was still master of himself. His immense strength not +only burst his bonds, but broke prison, and this invincible Samson +was once more free in Aberdeen, inspiring that respectable city with a +legendary dread. The reward of one hundred pounds was offered in vain. +Had he shown himself on the road in broad daylight, none would have +dared to arrest him, and it was not until his plans were deliberately +laid, that he crossed the sea. The more violent period of his career +was at an end. Never again did he yield to his passion for burning +and sudden death; and, if the world found him unconquerable, his +self-control is proved by the fact that in the heyday of his strength +he turned from his unredeemed brutality to a gentler method. He now +deserted Scotland for France, with which, like all his countrymen, he +claimed a cousinship; and so profoundly did he impose upon Paris with +his immense stature, his elegant attire, his courtly manners (for he was +courtesy itself, when it pleased him), that he was taken for an eminent +scholar, or at least a soldier of fortune. + +Prosperity might doubtless have followed a discreet profession, but +Gilderoy must still be thieving, and he reaped a rich harvest among the +unsuspicious courtiers of France. His most highly renowned exploit was +performed at St. Denis, and the record of France's humiliation is still +treasured. The great church was packed with ladies of fashion and their +devout admirers. Richelieu attended in state; the king himself shone +upon the assembly. The strange Scotsman, whom no man knew and all men +wondered at, attracted a hundred eyes to himself and his magnificent +equipment. But it was not his to be idle, and at the very moment whereat +Mass was being sung, he contrived to lighten Richelieu's pocket of a +purse. The king was a delighted witness of the theft; Gilderoy, assuming +an air of facile intimacy, motioned him to silence; and he, deeming it +a trick put upon Richelieu by a friend, hastened, at the service-end, to +ask his minister if perchance he had a purse of gold upon him. Richelieu +instantly discovered the loss, to the king's uncontrolled hilarity, +which was mitigated when it was found that the thief, having emptied the +king's pocket at the unguarded moment of his merriment, had left them +both the poorer. + +Such were Gilderoy's interludes of gaiety; and when you remember the +cynical ferocity of his earlier performance, you cannot deny him the +credit of versatility. He stayed in France until his ominous reputation +was too widely spread; whereupon he crossed the Pyrenees, travelling +like a gentleman, in a brilliant carriage of his own. From Spain he +carried off a priceless collection of silver plate; and he returned to +his own country, fatigued, yet unsoftened, by the grand tour. Meanwhile, +a forgetful generation had not kept his memory green. The monster, +who punished Scotland a year ago with fire and sword, had passed +into oblivion, and Gilderoy was able to establish for himself a new +reputation. He departed as far as possible from his ancient custom, +joined the many cavaliers, who were riding up and down the country, +pistol in hand, and presently proved a dauntless highwayman. He had +not long ridden in the neighbourhood of Perth before he met the Earl of +Linlithgow, from whom he took a gold watch, a diamond ring, and eighty +guineas. Being an outlaw, he naturally espoused the King's cause, and +would have given a year of his life to meet a Regicide. Once upon a +time, says rumour, he found himself face to face with Oliver Cromwell, +whom he dragged from his coach, set ignominiously upon an ass, and so +turned adrift with his feet tied under the beast's belly. The story is +incredible, not only because the loyal historians of the time caused +Oliver to be robbed daily on every road in Great Britain, but because +our Gilderoy, had he ever confronted the Protector, most assuredly would +not have allowed him to escape with his life. + +Tired of scouring the highway, Gilderoy resolved upon another +enterprise. He collected a band of fearless ruffians, and placed himself +at their head. With this army to aid, he harried Sutherland and the +North, lifting cattle, plundering homesteads, and stopping wayfarers +with a humour and adroitness worthy of Robin Hood. No longer a lawless +adventurer, he made his own conditions of life, and forced the people to +obey them. He who would pay Gilderoy a fair contribution ran no risk of +losing his sheep or oxen. But evasion was impossible, and the smallest +suspicion of falsehood was punished by death. The peaceably inclined +paid their toll with regret; the more daring opposed the raider to their +miserable undoing; the timid satisfied the utmost exactions of Gilderoy, +and deemed themselves fortunate if they left the country with their +lives. + +Thus Scotland became a land of dread; the most restless man within +her borders hardly dare travel beyond his byre. The law was powerless +against this indomitable scourge, and the reward of a thousand marks +would have been offered in vain, had not Gilderoy's cruelty estranged +his mistress. This traitress--Peg Cunningham was her name--less for +avarice than in revenge for many insults and infidelities, at last +betrayed her master. Having decoyed him to her house, she admitted fifty +armed men, and thus imagined a full atonement for her unnumbered wrongs. +But Gilderoy was triumphant to the last. Instantly suspecting the +treachery of his mistress, he burst into her bed-chamber, and, that she +might not enjoy the price of blood, ripped her up with a hanger. Then he +turned defiant upon the army arrayed against him, and killed eight men +before the others captured him. + +Disarmed after a desperate struggle, he was loaded with chains and +carried to Edinburgh, where he was starved for three days, and then +hanged without the formality of a trial on a gibbet, thirty feet +high, set up in the Grassmarket. Even then Scotland's vengeance was +unsatisfied. The body, cut down from its first gibbet, was hung in +chains forty feet above Leith Walk, where it creaked and gibbered as a +warning to evildoers for half a century, until at last the inhabitants +of that respectable quarter petitioned that Gilderoy's bones should +cease to rattle, and that they should enjoy the peace impossible for his +jingling skeleton. + +Gilderoy was no drawing-room scoundrel, no villain of schoolgirl +romance. He felt remorse as little as he felt fear, and there was no +crime from whose commission he shrank. Before his death he confessed to +thirty-seven murders, and bragged that he had long since lost count of +his robberies and rapes. Something must be abated for boastfulness. But +after all deduction there remains a tale of crime that is unsurpassed. +His most admirably artistic quality is his complete consistence. He was +a ruffian finished and rotund; he made no concession, he betrayed no +weakness. Though he never preached a sermon against the human race, he +practised a brutality which might have proceeded from a gospel of hate. +He spared neither friends nor relatives, and he murdered his own mother +with as light a heart as he sent a strange widow of Aberdeen to her +death. His skill is undoubted, and he proved by the discipline of his +band that he was not without some talent of generalship. But he owed +much of his success to his physical strength, and to the temperament, +which never knew the scandal of hesitancy or dread. + +A born marauder, he devoted his life to his trade; and, despite his +travels in France and Spain, he enjoyed few intervals of merriment. +Even the humour, which proved his redemption, was as dour and grim as +Scotland can furnish at her grimmes: and dourest. Here is a specimen +will serve as well as another: three of Gilderoy's gang had been +hanged according to the sentence of a certain Lord of Session, and +the Chieftain, for his own vengeance and the intimidation of justice, +resolved upon an exemplary punishment. He waylaid the Lord of Session, +emptied his pockets, killed his horses, broke his coach in pieces, +and having bound his lackeys, drowned them in a pond. This was but the +prelude of revenge, for presently (and here is the touch of humour) he +made the Lord of Session ride at dead of night to the gallows, whereon +the three malefactors were hanging. One arm of the crossbeams was still +untenanted. 'By my soul, mon,' cried Gilderoy to the Lord of Session, +'as this gibbet is built to break people's craigs, and is not uniform +without another, I must e'en hang you upon the vacant beam.' And +straightway the Lord of Session swung in the moonlight, and Gilderoy had +cracked his black and solemn joke. + + +This sense of fun is the single trait which relieves the colossal +turpitude of Gilderoy. And, though even his turpitude was melodramatic +in its lack of balance, it is a unity of character which is the +foundation of his greatness. He was no fumbler, led away from his +purpose by the first diversion; his ambition was clear before him, and +he never fell below it. He defied Scotland for fifteen years, was hanged +so high that he passed into a proverb, and though his handsome, sinister +face might have made women his slaves, he was never betrayed by passion +(or by virtue) to an amiability. + + + + +II--SIXTEEN-STRING JACK + + +THE 'Green Pig' stood in the solitude of the North Road. Its simple +front, its neatly balanced windows, curtained with white, gave it an air +of comfort and tranquillity. The smoke which curled from its hospitable +chimney spoke of warmth and good fare. + +To pass it was to spurn the last chance of a bottle for many a weary +mile, and the prudent traveller would always rest an hour by its ample +fireside, or gossip with its fantastic hostess. Now, the hostess of +the little inn was Ellen Roach, friend and accomplice of Sixteen-String +Jack, once the most famous woman in England, and still after a weary +stretch at Botany Bay the strangest of companions, the most buxom of +spinsters. Her beauty was elusive even in her triumphant youth, and +middle-age had neither softened her traits nor refined her expression. +Her auburn hair, once the glory of Covent Garden, was fading to a +withered grey; she was never tall enough to endure an encroaching +stoutness with equanimity; her dumpy figure made you marvel at her past +success; and hardship had furrowed her candid brow into wrinkles. But +when she opened her lips she became instantly animated. With a glass +before her on the table, she would prattle frankly and engagingly of +the past. Strange cities had she seen; she had faced the dangers of an +adventurous life with calmness and good temper. And yet Botany Bay, +with its attendant horrors, was already fading from her memory. In +imagination she was still with her incomparable hero, and it was her +solace, after fifteen years, to sing the praise and echo the perfections +of Sixteen-String Jack. + +'How well I remember,' she would murmur, as though unconscious of her +audience, 'the unhappy day when Jack Rann was first arrested. + +It was May, and he came back travel-stained and weary in the brilliant +dawn. He had stopped a one-horse shay near the nine-mile stone on the +Hounslow Road--every word of his confession is burnt into my brain--and +had taken a watch and a handful of guineas. I was glad enough of the +money, for there was no penny in the house, and presently I sent the +maid-servant to make the best bargain she could with the watch. But the +silly jade, by the saddest of mishaps, took the trinket straight to the +very man who made it, and he, suspecting a theft, had us both arrested. +Even then Jack might have been safe, had not the devil prompted me to +speak the truth. Dismayed by the magistrate, I owned, wretched woman +that I was, that I had received the watch from Rann, and in two hours +Jack also was under lock and key. Yet, when we were sent for trial +I made what amends I could. I declared on oath that I had never seen +Sixteen-String Jack in my life; his name came to my lips by accident; +and, hector as they would, the lawyers could not frighten me to an +acknowledgment. Meanwhile Jack's own behaviour was grand. I was the +proudest woman in England as I stood by his side in the dock. When you +compared him with Sir John Fielding, you did not doubt for an instant +which was the finer gentleman. And what a dandy was my Jack! Though he +came there to answer for his life, he was all ribbons and furbelows. His +irons were tied up with the daintiest blue bows, and in the breast of +his coat he carried a bundle of flowers as large as a birch-broom. His +neck quivered in the noose, yet he was never cowed to civility. 'I know +no more of the matter than you do,' he cried indignantly, 'nor half so +much neither,' and if the magistrate had not been an ill-mannered oaf, +he would not have dared to disbelieve my true-hearted Jack. That time +we escaped with whole skins; and off we went, after dinner, to Vauxhall, +where Jack was more noticed than the fiercest of the bloods, and where +he filled the heart of George Barrington with envy. Nor was he idle, +despite his recent escape: he brought away two watches and three purses +from the Garden, so that our necessities were amply supplied. Ah, I +should have been happy in those days if only Jack had been faithful. +But he had a roving eye and a joyous temperament; and though he loved +me better than any of the baggages to whom he paid court, he would not +visit me so often as he should. Why, once he was hustled off to Bow +Street because the watch caught him climbing in at Doll Frampton's +window. And she, the shameless minx, got him off by declaring in open +court that she would be proud to receive him whenever he would deign to +ring at her bell. That is the penalty of loving a great man: you must +needs share his affection with a set of unworthy wenches. Yet Jack was +always kind to me, and I was the chosen companion of his pranks. + +'Never can I forget the splendid figure he cut that day at Bagnigge +Wells. We had driven down in our coach, and all the world marvelled at +our magnificence. Jack was brave in a scarlet coat, a tambour waistcoat, +and white silk stockings. From the knees of his breeches streamed the +strings (eight at each), whence he got his name, and as he plucked +off his lace-hat the dinner-table rose at him. That was a moment worth +living for, and when, after his first bottle, Jack rattled the glasses, +and declared himself a highwayman, the whole company shuddered. "But, my +friends," quoth he, "to-day I am making holiday, so that you have naught +to fear." When the wine 's in, the wit 's out, and Jack could never stay +his hand from the bottle. The more he drank, the more he bragged, until, +thoroughly fuddled, he lost a ring from his finger, and charged the +miscreants in the room with stealing it. "However," hiccupped he, +"'tis a mere nothing, worth a paltry hundred pounds--less than a lazy +evening's work. So I'll let the trifling theft pass." But the cowards +were not content with Jack's generosity, and seizing upon him, they +thrust him neck and crop through the window. They were seventeen to one, +the craven-hearted loons; and I could but leave the marks of my nails +on the cheek of the foremost, and follow my hero into the yard, where we +took coach, and drove sulkily back to Covent Garden. + +'And yet he was not always in a mad humour; in fact, Sixteen-String +Jack, for all his gaiety, was a proud, melancholy man. The shadow of the +tree was always upon him, and he would make me miserable by talking of +his certain doom. "I have a hundred pounds in my pocket," he would say; +"I shall spend that, and then I shan't last long." And though I never +thought him serious, his prophecy came true enough. Only a few +months before the end we had visited Tyburn together. With his usual +carelessness, he passed the line of constables who were on guard. + +"It is very proper," said he, in his jauntiest tone, "that I should be a +spectator on this melancholy occasion." And though none of the dullards +took his jest, they instantly made way for him. For my Jack was always +a gentleman, though he was bred to the stable, and his bitterest enemy +could not have denied that he was handsome. His open countenance was +as honest as the day, and the brown curls over his forehead were more +elegant than the smartest wig. Wherever he went the world did him +honour, and many a time my vanity was sorely wounded. I was a pretty +girl, mind you, though my travels have not improved my beauty; and I had +many admirers before ever I picked up Jack Rann at a masquerade. Why, +there was a Templar, with two thousand a year, who gave me a carriage +and servants while I still lived at the dressmaker's in Oxford Street, +and I was not out of my teens when the old Jew in St. Mary Axe took me +into keeping. But when Jack was by, I had no chance of admiration. All +the eyes were glued upon him, and his poor doxy had to be content with +a furtive look thrown over a stranger's shoulder. At Barnet races, the +year before they sent me across the sea, we were followed by a crowd +the livelong day; and truly Jack, in his blue satin waistcoat laced with +silver, might have been a peer. At any rate, he had not his equal on the +course, and it is small wonder that never for a moment were we left to +ourselves. + +'But happiness does not last for ever; only too often we were gravelled +for lack of money, and Jack, finding his purse empty, could do naught +else than hire a hackney and take to the road again, while I used to lie +awake listening to the watchman's raucous voice, and praying God to +send back my warrior rich and scatheless. So times grew more and more +difficult. Jack would stay a whole night upon the heath, and come home +with an empty pocket or a beggarly half crown. And there was nothing, +after a shabby coat that he hated half so much as a sheriff's officer. +"Learn a lesson in politeness," he said to one of the wretches who +dragged him off to the Marshalsea. "When Sir John Fielding's people come +after me they use me genteelly; they only hold up a finger, beckon me, +and I follow as quietly as a lamb. But you bluster and insult, as though +you had never dealings with gentlemen." Poor Jack, he was of a proud +stomach, and could not abide interference; yet they would never let him +go free. And he would have been so happy had he been allowed his own +way. To pull out a rusty pistol now and again, and to take a purse from +a traveller--surely these were innocent pleasures, and he never meant to +hurt a fellow-creature. But for all his kindness of heart, for all his +love of splendour and fine clothes, they took him at last. + +'And this time, too, it was a watch which was our ruin. How often did I +warn him: "Jack," I would say, "take all the money you can. Guineas tell +no tale. But leave the watches in their owners' fobs." Alas! he did not +heed my words, and the last man he ever stopped on the road was that +pompous rascal, Dr. Bell, then chaplain to the Princess Amelia. "Give me +your money," screamed Jack, "and take no notice or I'll blow your +brains out." And the doctor gave him all that he had, the mean-spirited +devil-dodger, and it was no more than eighteenpence. Now what should a +man of courage do with eighteenpence? So poor Jack was forced to seize +the parson's watch and trinkets as well, and thus it was that a second +time we faced the Blind Beak. + +When Jack brought home the watch, I was seized with a shuddering +presentiment, and I would have given the world to throw it out of the +window. But I could not bear to see him pinched with hunger, and he +had already tossed the doctor's eighteenpence to a beggar woman. So +I trudged off to the pawnbroker's, to get what price I could, and I +bethought me that none would know me for what I was so far away as +Oxford Street. But the monster behind the counter had a quick suspicion, +though I swear I looked as innocent as a babe; he discovered the owner +of the watch, and infamously followed me to my house. + +'The next day we were both arrested, and once more we stood in the hot, +stifling Court of the Old Bailey. Jack was radiant as ever, the one +spot of colour and gaiety in that close, sodden atmosphere. When we were +taken from Bow Street a thousand people formed our guard of honour, and +for a month we were the twin wonders of London. The lightest word, the +fleetest smile of the renowned highwayman, threw the world into a fit +of excitement, and a glimpse of Rann was worth a king's ransom. I could +look upon him all day for nothing! And I knew what a fever of fear +throbbed behind his mask of happy contempt. Yet bravely he played the +part unto the very end. If the toasts of London were determined to gaze +at him, he assured them they should have a proper salve for their +eyes. So he dressed himself as a light-hearted sportsman. His coat and +waistcoat were of pea-green cloth; his buckskin breeches were spotlessly +new, and all tricked out with the famous strings; his hat was bound +round with silver cords; and even the ushers of the Court were touched +to courtesy. He would whisper to me, as we stood in the dock, "Cheer up, +my girl. I have ordered the best supper that Covent Garden can provide, +and we will make merry to-night when this foolish old judge has done his +duty." The supper was never eaten. Through the weary afternoon we waited +for acquittal. The autumn sun sank in hopeless gloom. The wretched lamps +twinkled through the jaded air of the court-house. In an hour I lived +a thousand years of misery, and when the sentence was read, the words +carried no sense to my withered brain. It was only in my cell I realised +that I had seen Jack Rann for the last time; that his pea-green coat +would prove a final and ineffaceable memory. + +'Alas! I, who had never been married, was already a hempen widow; but +I was too hopelessly heartbroken for my lover's fate to think of my own +paltry hardship. I never saw him again. They told me that he suffered +at Tyburn like a man, and that he counted upon a rescue to the very +end. They told me (still bitterer news to hear) that two days before +his death he entertained seven women at supper, and was in the wildest +humour. This almost broke my heart; it was an infidelity committed on +the other side of the grave. But, poor Jack, he was a good lad, and +loved me more than them all, though he never could be faithful to me.' +And thus, bidding the drawer bring fresh glasses, Ellen Roach would end +her story. Though she had told it a hundred times, at the last words a +tear always sparkled in her eye. She lived without friend and without +lover, faithful to the memory of Sixteen-String Jack, who for her was +the only reality in the world of shades. Her middle-age was as distant +as her youth. The dressmaker's in Oxford Street was as vague a dream as +the inhospitable shore of Botany Bay. So she waited on to a weary eld, +proud of the 'Green Pig's' well-ordered comfort, prouder still that for +two years she shared the glory of Jack Rann, and that she did not desert +her hero, even in his punishment. + + + + +III--A PARALLEL + +(GILDEROY AND SIXTEEN-STRING JACK) + + +THEIR closest parallel is the notoriety which dogged them from the very +day of their death. Each, for his own exploits, was the most famous +man of his time, the favourite of broadsides, the prime hero of the +ballad-mongers. And each owed his fame as much to good fortune as to +merit, since both were excelled in their generation by more skilful +scoundrels. If Gilderoy was unsurpassed in brutality, he fell +immeasurably below Hind in artistry and wit, nor may he be compared +to such accomplished highwaymen as Mull Sack or the Golden Farmer. His +method was not elevated by a touch of the grand style. He stamped all +the rules of the road beneath his contemptuous foot, and cared not what +enormity he committed in his quest for gold. Yet, though he lived in +the true Augustan age, he yielded to no one of his rivals in glorious +recognition. So, too, Jack Rann, of the Sixteen Strings, was a near +contemporary of George Barrington. While that nimble-fingered prig was +making a brilliant appearance at Vauxhall, and emptying the pockets of +his intimates, Rann was riding over Hounslow Heath, and flashing his +pistol in the eye of the wayfarer. The very year in which Jack danced +his last jig at Tyburn, Barrington had astonished London by a fruitless +attempt to steal Prince Orloff's miraculous snuff-box. And not +even Ellen Roach herself would have dared to assert that Rann was +Barrington's equal in sleight of hand. But Rann holds his own against +the best of his craft, with an imperishable name, while a host of more +distinguished cracksmen are excluded even from the Newgate Calendar. + +In truth, there is one quality which has naught to do with artistic +supremacy; and in this quality both Rann and Gilderoy were rich beyond +their fellows. They knew (none better) how to impose upon the world. Had +their deserts been even less than they were, they would still have +been bravely notorious. It is a common superstition that the talent for +advertisement has but a transitory effect, that time sets all men in +their proper places. + +Nothing can be more false; for he who has once declared himself among +the great ones of the earth, not only holds his position while he lives, +but forces an unreasoning admiration upon the future. Though he declines +from the lofty throne, whereon his own vanity and love of praise have +set him, he still stands above the modest level which contents the +genuinely great. Why does Euripides still throw a shadow upon the +worthier poets of his time? Because he had the faculty of displacement, +because he could compel the world to profess an interest not only in +his work but in himself. Why is Michael Angelo a loftier figure in the +history of art than Donatello, the supreme sculptor of his time? Because +Donatello had not the temper which would bully a hundred popes, and +extract a magnificent advertisement from each encounter. Why does +Shelley still claim a larger share of the world's admiration than Keats, +his indubitable superior? Because Shelley was blessed or cursed with the +trick of interesting the world by the accidents of his life. + +So by a similar faculty Gilderoy and Jack Rann have kept themselves and +their achievements in the light of day. Had they lived in the nineteenth +century they might have been the vendors of patent pills, or the +chairmen of bubble companies. Whatever trade they had followed, their +names would have been on every hoarding, their wares would have been +puffed in every journal. They understood the art of publicity better +than any of their contemporaries, and they are remembered not because +they were the best thieves of their time, but because they were +determined to interest the people in their misdeeds. Gilderoy's +brutality, which was always theatrical, ensured a constant remembrance, +and the lofty gallows added to his repute; while the brilliant +inspiration of the strings, which decorated Rann's breeches, was +sufficient to conquer death. How should a hero sink to oblivion who had +chosen for himself so splendid a name as Sixteen-String Jack? + +So far, then, their achievement is parallel. And parallel also is their +taste for melodrama. Each employed means too great or too violent for +the end in view. Gilderoy burnt houses and ravished women, when his +sole object was the acquisition of money. Sixteen-String Jack terrified +Bagnigge Wells with the dreadful announcement that he was a highwayman, +when his kindly, stupid heart would have shrunk from the shedding of +a drop of blood. So they both blustered through the world, the one in +deed, the other in word; and both played their parts with so little +refinement that they frightened the groundlings to a timid admiration. +Here the resemblance is at an end. In the essentials of their trade +Gilderoy was a professional, Rann a mere amateur. They both bullied; +but, while Sixteen-String Jack was content to shout threats, and pick up +half-a-crown, Gilderoy breathed murder, and demanded a vast ransom. +Only once in his career did the 'disgraceful Scotsman' become gay and +debonair. Only once did he relax the tension of his frown, and pick +pockets with the lightness and freedom of a gentleman. It was on his +voyage to France that he forgot his old policy of arson and pillage, and +truly the Court of the Great King was not the place for his rapacious +cruelty. Jack Rann, on the other hand, would have taken life as a +prolonged jest, if Sir John Fielding and the sheriffs had not checked +his mirth. He was but a bungler on the road, with no more resource +than he might have learned from the common chap-book, or from the +dying speeches, hawked in Newgate Street. But he had a fine talent for +merriment; he loved nothing so well as a smart coat and a pretty woman. +Thieving was no passion with him, but a necessity. How could he dance at +a masquerade or court his Ellen with an empty pocket? So he took to the +road as the sole profession of an idle man, and he bullied his way from +Hounslow to Epping in sheer lightness of heart. After all, to rob Dr. +Bell of eighteenpence was the work of a simpleton. It was a very pretty +taste which expressed itself in a pea-green coat and deathless strings; +and Rann will keep posterity's respect rather for the accessories of +his art than for the art itself. On the other hand, you cannot imagine +Gilderoy habited otherwise than in black; you cannot imagine this +monstrous matricide taking pleasure in the smaller elegancies of life. +From first to last he was the stern and beetle-browed marauder, who +would have despised the frippery of Sixteen-String Jack as vehemently as +his sudden appearance would have frightened the foppish lover of Ellen +Roach. + +Their conduct with women is sufficient index of their character. Jack +Rann was too general a lover for fidelity. But he was amiable, even in +his unfaithfulness; he won the undying affection of his Ellen; he never +stood in the dock without a nosegay tied up by fair and nimble fingers; +he was attended to Tyburn by a bevy of distinguished admirers. Gilderoy, +on the other hand, approached women in a spirit of violence. His Sadic +temper drove him to kill those whom he affected to love. And his cruelty +was amply repaid. While Ellen Roach perjured herself to save the lover, +to whose memory she professed a lifelong loyalty, it was Peg Cunningham +who wreaked her vengeance in the betrayal of Gilderoy. He remained true +to his character, when he ripped up the belly of his betrayer. This was +the closing act of his life. + +Rann, also, was consistent, even to the gallows. The night before his +death he entertained seven women at supper, and outlaughed them all. The +contrast is not so violent as it appears. The one act is melodrama, the +other farce. And what is farce, but melodrama in a happier shape? + + + + +THOMAS PURENEY + + +THOMAS PURENEY, Archbishop among Ordinaries, lived and preached in +the heyday of Newgate. His was the good fortune to witness Sheppard's +encounter with the topsman, and to shrive the battered soul of Jonathan +Wild. Nor did he fall one inch below his opportunity. Designed by +Providence to administer a final consolation to the evil-doer, he +permitted no false ambition to distract his talent. As some men are born +for the gallows, so he was born to thump the cushion of a prison pulpit; +and his peculiar aptitude was revealed to him before he had time to +spend his strength in mistaken endeavour. + +For thirty years his squat, stout figure was amiably familiar to all +such as enjoyed the Liberties of the Jug. For thirty years his mottled +nose and the rubicundity of his cheeks were the ineffaceable ensigns of +his intemperance. Yet there was a grimy humour in his forbidding aspect. +The fusty black coat, which sat ill upon his shambling frame, was all +besmirched with spilled snuff, and the lees of a thousand quart pots. +The bands of his profession were ever awry upon a tattered shirt. His +ancient wig scattered dust and powder as he went, while a single buckle +of some tawdry metal gave a look of oddity to his clumsy, slipshod +feet. A caricature of a man, he ambled and chuckled and seized the easy +pleasures within his reach. There was never a summer's day but he caught +upon his brow the few faint gleams of sunlight that penetrated the +gloomy yard. Hour after hour he would sit, his short fingers hardly +linked across his belly, drinking his cup of ale, and puffing at a +half-extinguished tobacco-pipe. Meanwhile he would reflect upon those +triumphs of oratory which were his supreme delight. If it fell on a +Monday that he took the air, a smile of satisfaction lit up his +fat, loose features, for still he pondered the effect of yesterday's +masterpiece. On Saturday the glad expectancy of to-morrow lent him +a certain joyous dignity. At other times his eye lacked lustre, his +gesture buoyancy, unless indeed he were called upon to follow the +cart to Tyburn, or to compose the Last Dying Speech of some notorious +malefactor. + +Preaching was the master passion of his life. It was the pulpit that +reconciled him to exile within a great city, and persuaded him to the +enjoyment of roguish company. Those there were who deemed his career +unfortunate; but a sense of fitness might have checked their pity, and +it was only in his hours of maudlin confidence that the Reverend Thomas +confessed to disappointment. Born of respectable parents in the County +of Cambridgeshire, he nurtured his youth upon the exploits of James +Hind and the Golden Farmer. His boyish pleasure was to lie in the +ditch, which bounded his father's orchard, studying that now forgotten +masterpiece, 'There's no Jest like a True Jest.' Then it was that he +felt 'immortal longings in his blood.' He would take to the road, so he +swore, and hold up his enemies like a gentleman. Once, indeed, he was +surprised by the clergyman of the parish in act to escape from the +rectory with two volumes of sermons and a silver flagon. The divine was +minded to speak seriously to him concerning the dreadful sin of robbery, +and having strengthened him with texts and good counsel, to send him +forth unpunished. 'Thieving and covetousness,' said the parson, 'must +inevitably bring you to the gallows. If you would die in your bed, +repent you of your evildoing, and rob no more.' The exhortation was not +lost upon Pureney, who, chastened in spirit, straightly prevailed upon +his father to enter him a pensioner at Corpus Christi College in the +University of Cambridge, that at the proper time he might take orders. + +At Cambridge he gathered no more knowledge than was necessary for his +profession, and wasted such hours as should have been given to study in +drinking, dicing, and even less reputable pleasures. Yet repentance +was always easy, and he accepted his first curacy, at Newmarket, with +a brave heart and a good hopefulness. Fortunate was the choice of this +early cure. Had he been gently guided at the outset, who knows but he +might have lived out his life in respectable obscurity? But Newmarket +then, as now, was a town of jollity and dissipation, and Pureney yielded +without persuasion to the pleasures denied his cloth. There was ever a +fire to extinguish at his throat, nor could he veil his wanton eye at +the sight of a pretty wench. Again and again the lust of preaching +urged him to repent, yet he slid back upon his past gaiety, until +Parson Pureney became a byword. Dismissed from Newmarket in disgrace, he +wandered the country up and down in search of a pulpit, but so infamous +became the habit of his life that only in prison could he find an +audience fit and responsive. + +And, in the nick, the chaplaincy of Newgate fell vacant. Here was +the occasion to temper dissipation with piety, to indulge the twofold +ambition of his life. What mattered it, if within the prison walls he +dipped his nose more deeply into the punch-bowl than became a divine? +The rascals would but respect him the more for his prowess, and knit +more closely the bond of sympathy. Besides, after preaching and punch +he best loved a penitent, and where in the world could he find so rich a +crop of erring souls ripe for repentance as in gaol? Henceforth he might +threaten, bluster, and cajole. If amiability proved fruitless he would +put cruelty to the test, and terrify his victims by a spirited reference +to Hell and to that Burning Lake they were so soon to traverse. At last, +thought he, I shall be sure of my effect, and the prospect flattered +his vanity. In truth, he won an immediate and assured success. Like +the common file or cracksman, he fell into the habit of the place, +intriguing with all the cleverness of a practised diplomatist, and +setting one party against the other that he might in due season decide +the trumpery dispute. The trusted friend of many a distinguished prig +and murderer, he so intimately mastered the slang and etiquette of the +Jug, that he was appointed arbiter of all those nice questions of honour +which agitated the more reputable among the cross-coves. But these were +the diversions of a strenuous mind, and it was in the pulpit or in the +closet that the Reverend Thomas Pureney revealed his true talent. + +As the ruffian had a sense of drama, so he was determined that his words +should scald and bite the penitent. When the condemned pew was full of +a Sunday his happiness was complete. Now his deep chest would hurl +salvo on salvo of platitudes against the sounding-board; now his voice, +lowered to a whisper, would coax the hopeless prisoners to prepare their +souls. In a paroxysm of feigned anger he would crush the cushion with +his clenched fist, or leaning over the pulpit side as though to approach +the nearer to his victims, would roll a cold and bitter eye upon them, +as of a cat watching caged birds. One famous gesture was irresistible, +and he never employed it but some poor ruffian fell senseless to the +floor. His stumpy fingers would fix a noose of air round some imagined +neck, and so devoutly was the pantomime studied that you almost heard +the creak of the retreating cart as the phantom culprit was turned off. +But his conduct in the pulpit was due to no ferocity of temperament. He +merely exercised his legitimate craft. So long as Newgate supplied him +with an enforced audience, so long would he thunder and bluster at the +wrongdoer according to law and the dictates of his conscience. + +Many, in truth, were his triumphs, but, as he would mutter in his +garrulous old age, never was he so successful as in the last exhortation +delivered to Matthias Brinsden. Now, Matthias Brinsden incontinently +murdered his wife because she harboured too eager a love of the +brandy-shop. A model husband, he had spared no pains in her correction. +He had flogged her without mercy and without result. His one design +was to make his wife obey him, which, as the Scriptures say, all +wives should do. But the lust of brandy overcame wifely obedience, and +Brinsden, hoping for the best, was constrained to cut a hole in her +skull. The next day she was as impudent as ever, until Matthias rose +yet more fiercely in his wrath, and the shrew perished. Then was +Thomas Pureney's opportunity, and the Sunday following the miscreant's +condemnation he delivered unto him and seventeen other malefactors the +moving discourse which here follows: + +'We shall take our text,' gruffed the Ordinary 'From out the Psalms: +"Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days." +And firstly, we shall expound to you the heinous sin of murder, which is +unlawful (1) according to the Natural Laws, (2) according to the Jewish +Law, (3) according to the Christian Law, proportionably stronger. By +Nature 'tis unlawful as 'tis injuring Society: as 'tis robbing God +of what is His Right and Property; as 'tis depriving the Slain of the +satisfaction of Eating, Drinking, Talking, and the Light of the Sun, +which it is his right to enjoy. And especially 'tis unlawful, as it +is sending a Soul naked and unprepared to appear before a wrathful and +avenging Deity without time to make his Soul composedly or to listen to +the thoughtful ministrations of one (like ourselves) soundly versed in +Divinity. By the Jewish Law 'tis forbidden, for is it not written (Gen. +ix. 6): "Whosoever sheddeth Man's Blood, by Man his Blood shall be +shed"? And if an Eye be given for an Eye, a Tooth for a Tooth, how shall +the Murderer escape with his dishonoured Life? 'Tis further forbidden by +the Christian Law (proportionably stronger). + +But on this head we would speak no word, for were not you all, O +miserable Sinners, born not in the Darkness of Heathendom, but in the +burning Light of Christian England? + +'Secondly, we will consider the peculiar wickedness of Parricide, and +especially the Murder of a Wife. What deed, in truth, is more heinous +than that a man should slay the Parent of his own Children, the Wife he +had once loved and chose out of all the world to be a Companion of his +Days; the Wife who long had shared his good Fortune and his ill, who +had brought him with Pain and Anguish several Tokens and Badges of +Affection, the Olive Branches round about his Table? To embrew the hands +in such blood is double Murder, as it murders not only the Person slain, +but kills the Happiness of the orphaned Children, depriving them of +Bread, and forcing them upon wicked Ways of getting a Maintenance, which +often terminate in Newgate and an ignominious death. + +'Bloodthirsty men, we have said, shall not live out half their Days. And +think not that Repentance avails the Murderer. "Hell and Damnation are +never full" (Prov. xxvii. 20), and the meanest Sinner shall find a place +in the Lake which burns unto Eternity with Fire and Brimstone. Alas! +your Punishment shall not finish with the Noose. Your "end is to be +burned" (Heb. vi. 8), to be burned, for the Blood that is shed cries +aloud for Vengeance.' At these words, as Pureney would relate with a +smile of recollected triumph, Matthias Brinsden screamed aloud, and a +shiver ran through the idle audience which came to Newgate on a +Black Sunday, as to a bull-baiting. Truly, the throng of thoughtless +spectators hindered the proper solace of the Ordinary's ministrations, +and many a respectable murderer complained of the intruding mob. But the +Ordinary, otherwise minded, loved nothing so well as a packed house, and +though he would invite the criminal to his private closet, and comfort +his solitude with pious ejaculations, he would neither shield him from +curiosity, nor tranquillise his path to the unquenchable fire. + +Not only did he exercise in the pulpit a poignant and visible influence. +He boasted the confidence of many heroes. His green old age cherished +no more famous memory than the friendship of Jonathan Wild. He had known +the Great Man at his zenith; he had wrestled with him in the hour of +discomfiture; he had preached for his benefit that famous sermon on the +text: 'Hide Thy Face from my sins, and blot out all my Iniquities'; he +had witnessed the hero's awful progress from Newgate to Tyburn; he had +seen him shiver at the nubbing-cheat; he had composed for him a last +dying speech, which did not shame the king of thief-takers, and whose +sale brought a comfortable profit to the widow. Jonathan, on his side, +had shown the Ordinary not a little condescension. It had been his whim, +on the eve of his marriage, to present Mr. Pureney with a pair of white +gloves, which were treasured as a priceless relic for many a year. And +when he paid his last, forced visit to Newgate, he gave the Chaplain, +for a pledge of his esteem, that famous silver staff, which he carried, +as a badge of authority from the Government, the better to keep the +people in awe, and favour the enterprises of his rogues. + +Only one cloud shadowed this old and equal friendship. Jonathan had +entertained the Ordinary with discourse so familiar, they had cracked so +many a bottle together, that when the irrevocable sentence was passed, +when he who had never shown mercy, expected none, the Great Man found +the exhortations of the illiterate Chaplain insufficient for his high +purpose. 'As soon as I came into the condemned Hole,' thus he wrote, 'I +began to think of making a preparation for my soul; and the better to +bring my stubborn heart to repentance, I desired the advice of a man of +learning, a man of sound judgment in divinity, and therefore application +being made to the Reverend Mr. Nicholson, he very Christian-like gave +me his assistance.' Alas! Poor Pureney! He lacked subtlety, and he was +instantly baffled, when the Great Man bade him expound the text: 'Cursed +is every one that hangeth on a tree.' The shiftiest excuse would have +brought solace to a breaking heart and conviction to a casuist +brain. Yet for once the Ordinary was at a loss, and Wild, finding him +insufficient for his purpose, turned a deaf ear to his ministrations. +Thus he was rudely awakened from the dream of many sleepless nights. His +large heart almost broke at the neglect. + +But if his more private counsels were scorned, he still had the joy +of delivering a masterpiece from the pulpit, of using 'all the means +imaginable to make Wild think of another world,' and of seeing him as +neatly turned off as the most exacting Ordinary could desire. And what +inmate of Newgate ever forgot the afternoon of that glorious day (May +the 24th, 1725)? Mr. Pureney returned to his flock, fortified with +punch and good tidings. He pictured the scene at Tyburn with a bibulous +circumstance, which admirably became his style, rejoicing, as he has +rejoiced ever since, that, though he lost a friend, the honest rogue was +saved at last from the machinations of the thief-taker. + +So he basked and smoked and drank his ale, retelling the ancient +stories, and hiccuping forth the ancient sermons. So, in the fading +twilight of life, he smiled the smile of contentment, as became one who +had emptied more quarts, had delivered more harrowing discourses, and +had lived familiarly with more scoundrels than any devil-dodger of his +generation. + + + + +SHEPPARD AND CARTOUCHE + + + + +I--JACK SHEPPARD + + +IT was midnight when Jack Sheppard reached the leads, wearied by his +magical achievement, and still fearful of discovery. The 'jolly pair of +handcuffs,' provided by the thoughtful Governor, lay discarded in his +distant cell; the chains which a few hours since had grappled him to the +floor encumbered the now useless staple. No trace of the ancient slavery +disgraced him save the iron anklets which clung about his legs; though +many a broken wall and shattered lock must serve for evidence of his +prowess on the morrow. The Stone-Jug was all be-chipped and shattered. +From the castle he had forced his way through a nine-foot wall into +the Red Room, whose bolts, bars, and hinges he had ruined to gain the +Chapel. The road thence to the roof and to freedom was hindered by three +stubborn iron doors; yet naught stood in the way of Sheppard's genius, +and he was sensible, at last, of the night air chill upon his cheek. + +But liberty was not yet: there was still a fall of forty feet, and he +must needs repass the wreckage of his own making to filch the blankets +from his cell. In terror lest he should awaken the Master-Side Debtors, +he hastened back to the roof, lashed the coverlets together, and, as the +city clocks clashed twelve, he dropped noiselessly upon the leads of +a turner's house, built against the prison's outer wall. Behind him +Newgate was cut out a black mass against the sky; at his feet glimmered +the garret window of the turner's house, and behind the winking casement +he could see the turner's servant going to bed. Through her chamber lay +the road to glory and Clare Market, and breathlessly did Sheppard watch +till the candle should be extinguished and the maid silenced in sleep. +In his anxiety he must tarry--tarry; and for a weary hour he kicked his +heels upon the leads, ambition still too uncertain for quietude. Yet +he could not but catch a solace from his splendid craft. Said he to +himself: 'Am I not the most accomplished slip-string the world has +known? The broken wall of every round house in town attests my bravery. +Light-limbed though I be, have I not forced the impregnable Castle +itself? And my enemies--are they not to-day writhing in distress ? The +head of Blueskin, that pitiful thief, quivers in the noose; and Jonathan +Wild bleeds at the throat from the dregs of a coward's courage. What a +triumph shall be mine when the Keeper finds the stronghold tenantless!' + +Now, unnumbered were the affronts he had suffered from the Keeper's +impertinence, and he chuckled aloud at his own witty rejoinder. Only two +days since the Gaoler had caught him tampering with his irons. 'Young +man,' he had said, 'I see what you have been doing, but the affair +betwixt us stands thus: It is your business to make your escape, and +mine to take care you shall not.' Jack had answered coolly enough: 'Then +let's both mind our own business.' And it was to some purpose that he +had minded his. The letter to his baffled guardian, already sketched +in his mind, tickled him afresh, when suddenly he leaps to his feet and +begins to force the garret window. + +The turner's maid was a heavy sleeper, and Sheppard crept from her +garret to the twisted stair in peace. Once, on a lower floor, his heart +beat faster at the trumpetings of the turner's nose, but he knew no +check until he reached the street door. The bolt was withdrawn in an +instant, but the lock was turned, and the key nowhere to be found. +However, though the risk of disturbance was greater than in Newgate, +the task was light enough: and with an iron link from his fetter, and a +rusty nail which had served him bravely, the box was wrenched off in a +trice, and Sheppard stood unattended in the Old Bailey. At first he was +minded to make for his ancient haunts, or to conceal himself within the +Liberty of Westminster; but the fetter-locks were still upon his +legs, and he knew that detection would be easy as long as he was thus +embarrassed. Wherefore, weary and an-hungered, he turned his steps +northward, and never rested until he had gained Finchley Common. + +At break of day, when the world re-awoke from the fear of thieves, he +feigned a limp at a cottage door, and borrowed a hammer to straighten a +pinching shoe. Five minutes behind a hedge, and his anklets had dropped +from him; and, thus a free man, he took to the high road. After all he +was persuaded to desert London and to escape a while from the sturdy +embrace of Edgworth Bess. Moreover, if Bess herself were in the lock-up, +he still feared the interested affection of Mistress Maggot, that other +doxy, whose avarice would surely drive him upon a dangerous enterprise; +so he struck across country, and kept starvation from him by petty +theft. Up and down England he wandered in solitary insolence. Once, +saith rumour, his lithe apparition startled the peace of Nottingham; +once, he was wellnigh caught begging wort at a brew-house in Thames +Street. But he might as well have lingered in Newgate as waste his +opportunity far from the delights of Town; the old lust of life still +impelled him, and a week after the hue-and-cry was raised he crept at +dead of night down Drury Lane. Here he found harbourage with a friendly +fence, Wild's mortal enemy, who promised him a safe conduct across the +seas. But the desire of work proved too strong for prudence; and in a +fortnight he had planned an attack on the pawnshop of one Rawling, at +the Four Balls in Drury Lane. + +Sheppard, whom no house ever built with hands was strong enough to +hold, was better skilled at breaking out than at breaking in, and it +is remarkable that his last feat in the cracking of cribs was also his +greatest. Its very conception was a masterpiece of effrontery. Drury +Lane was the thief-catcher's chosen territory; yet it was the Four Balls +that Jack designed for attack, and watches, tie-wigs, snuff-boxes +were among his booty. Whatever he could not crowd upon his person he +presented to a brace of women. Tricked out in his stolen finery, he +drank and swaggered in Clare Market. He was dressed in a superb suit of +black; a diamond fawney flashed upon his finger; his light tie-periwig +was worth no less than seven pounds; pistols, tortoise-shell +snuff-boxes, and golden guineas jostled one another in his pockets. + +Thus, in brazen magnificence, he marched down Drury Lane on a certain +Saturday night in November 1724. Towards midnight he visited Thomas +Nicks, the butcher, and having bargained for three ribs of beef, carried +Nicks with him to a chandler's hard by, that they might ratify the +bargain with a dram. Unhappily, a boy from the 'Rose and Crown' sounded +the alarm; for coming into the chandler's for the empty ale-pots, he +instantly recognised the incomparable gaol-thief, and lost no time in +acquainting his master. Now, Mr. Bradford, of the 'Rose and Crown,' was +a head-borough, who, with the zeal of a triumphant Dogberry, summoned +the watch, and in less than half an hour Jack Sheppard was screaming +blasphemies in a hackney-cab on his way home to Newgate. + + +The Stone-Jug received him with deference and admiration. Three hundred +pounds weight of irons were put upon him for an adornment, and the +Governor professed so keen a solicitude for his welfare that he never +left him unattended. There was scarce a beautiful woman in London who +did not solace him with her condescension, and enrich him with her +gifts. Not only did the President of the Royal Academy deign to paint +his portrait, but (a far greater honour) Hogarth made him immortal. +Even the King displayed a proper interest, demanding a full and precise +account of his escapes. The hero himself was drunk with flattery; +he bubbled with ribaldry; he touched off the most valiant of his +contemporaries in a ludicrous phrase. But his chief delight was to +illustrate his prowess to his distinguished visitors, and nothing +pleased him better than to slip in and out of his chains. + +Confronted with his judge, he forthwith proposed to rid himself of his +handcuffs, and he preserved until the fatal tree an illimitable pride in +his artistry. Nor would he believe in the possibility of death. To the +very last he was confirmed in the hope of pardon; but, pardon failing +him, his single consolation was that his procession from Westminster +to Newgate was the largest that London had ever known, and that in +the crowd a constable broke his leg. Even in the Condemned Hole he was +unreconciled. If he had broken the Castle, why should he not also evade +the gallows? Wherefore he resolved to carry a knife to Tyburn that he +might cut the rope, and so, losing himself in the crowd, ensure escape. +But the knife was discovered by his warder's vigilance, and taken +from him after a desperate struggle. At the scaffold he behaved with +admirable gravity: confessing the wickeder of his robberies, and asking +pardon for his enormous crimes. 'Of two virtues,' he boasted at the +self-same moment that the cart left him dancing without the music, 'I +have ever cherished an honest pride: never have I stooped to friendship +with Jonathan Wild, or with any of his detestable thief-takers; and, +though an undutiful son, I never damned my mother's eyes.' + +Thus died Jack Sheppard; intrepid burglar and incomparable artist, who, +in his own separate ambition of prison-breaking, remains, and will ever +remain, unrivalled. His most brilliant efforts were the result neither +of strength nor of cunning; for so slight was he of build, so deficient +in muscle, that both Edgworth Bess and Mistress Maggot were wont to +bang him to their own mind and purpose. And an escape so magnificently +planned, so bravely executed as was his from the Strong Room, is far +greater than a mere effect of cunning. Those mysterious gifts which +enable mankind to batter the stone walls of a prison, or to bend the +iron bars of a cage, were pre-eminently his. It is also certain that he +could not have employed his gifts in a more reputable profession. + + + + +II--LOUIS-DOMINIQUE CARTOUCHE + + +Of all the heroes who have waged a private and undeclared war upon their +neighbours, Louis-Dominique Cartouche was the most generously endowed. +It was but his resolute contempt for politics, his unswerving love of +plunder for its own sake, that prevented him from seizing a throne or +questing after the empire of the world. The modesty of his ambition sets +him below Caesar, or Napoleon, but he yields to neither in the genius +of success: whatever he would attain was his on the instant, nor did +failure interrupt his career, until treachery, of which he went in +perpetual terror, involved himself and his comrades in ruin. His talent +of generalship was unrivalled. None of the gang was permitted the +liberty of a free-lance. By Cartouche was the order given, and so long +as the chief was in repose, Paris might enjoy her sleep. When it pleased +him to join battle a whistle was enough. + +Now, it was revealed to his intelligence that the professional thief, +who devoted all his days and such of his nights as were spared from +depredation to wine and women, was more readily detected than the +valet-de-chambre, who did but crack a crib or cry 'Stand and deliver!' +on a proper occasion. Wherefore, he bade his soldiers take service in +the great houses of Paris, that, secure of suspicion, they might +still be ready to obey the call of duty. Thus, also, they formed a +reconnoitring force, whose vigilance no prize might elude; and nowhere +did Cartouche display his genius to finer purpose than in this prudent +disposition of his army. It remained only to efface himself, and therein +he succeeded admirably by never sleeping two following nights in the +same house: so that, when Cartouche was the terror of Paris, when even +the King trembled in his bed, none knew his stature nor could recognise +his features. In this shifting and impersonal vizard, he broke houses, +picked pockets, robbed on the pad. One night he would terrify the +Faubourg St. Germain; another he would plunder the humbler suburb of St. +Antoine; but on each excursion he was companioned by experts, and +the map of Paris was rigidly apportioned among his followers. To each +district a captain was appointed, whose business it was to apprehend +the customs of the quarter, and thus to indicate the proper season of +attack. + +Ever triumphant, with yellow-boys ever jingling in his pocket, Cartouche +lived a life of luxurious merriment. A favourite haunt was a cabaret +in the Rue Dauphine, chosen for the sanest of reasons, as his Captain +Ferrand declared, that the landlady was a femme d'esprit. Here he would +sit with his friends and his women, and thereafter drive his chariot +across the Pont Neuf to the sunnier gaiety of the Palais-Royal. A +finished dandy, he wore by preference a grey-white coat with silver +buttons; his breeches and stockings were on a famous occasion of black +silk; while a sword, scabbarded in satin, hung at his hip. + +But if Cartouche, like many another great man, had the faculty of +enjoyment, if he loved wine and wit, and mistresses handsomely attired +in damask, he did not therefore neglect his art. When once the gang was +perfectly ordered, murder followed robbery with so instant a frequency +that Paris was panic-stricken. A cry of 'Cartouche' straightway ensured +an empty street. The King took counsel with his ministers: munificent +rewards were offered, without effect. The thief was still at work in all +security, and it was a pretty irony which urged him to strip and kill on +the highway one of the King's own pages. Also, he did his work with +so astonishing a silence, with so reasoned a certainty, that it seemed +impossible to take him or his minions red-handed. + +Before all, he discouraged the use of firearms. 'A pistol,' his +philosophy urged, 'is an excellent weapon in an emergency, but reserve +it for emergencies. At close quarters it is none too sure; and why give +the alarm against yourself?' Therefore he armed his band with loaded +staves, which sent their enemies into a noiseless and fatal sleep. +Thus was he wont to laugh at the police, deeming capture a plain +impossibility. The traitor, in sooth, was his single, irremediable fear, +and if ever suspicion was aroused against a member of the gang, that +member was put to death with the shortest shrift. + +It happened in the last year of Cartouche's supremacy that a +lily-livered comrade fell in love with a pretty dressmaker. The +indiscretion was the less pardonable since the dressmaker had a horror +of theft, and impudently tried to turn her lover from his trade. +Cartouche, discovering the backslider, resolved upon a public +exhibition. Before the assembled band he charged the miscreant +with treason, and, cutting his throat, disfigured his face beyond +recognition. Thereafter he pinned to the corse the following +inscription, that others might be warned by so monstrous an example: +'Ci git Jean Rebati, qui a eu le traitement qu'il meritait: ceux qui en +feront autant que lui peuvent attendre le meme sort.' Yet this was the +murder that led to the hero's own capture and death. + +Du Chatelet, another craven, had already aroused the suspicions of +his landlady: who, finding him something troubled the day after the +traitor's death, and detecting a spot of blood on his neckerchief, +questioned him closely. The coward fumbling at an answer, she was +presently convinced of his guilt, and forthwith denounced him for a +member of the gang to M. Pacome, an officer of the Guard. Straightly did +M. Pacome summon Du Chtelet, and, assuming his guilt for certitude, +bade him surrender his captain. 'My friend,' said he, 'I know you for +an associate of Cartouche. Your hands are soiled with murder and rapine. +Confess the hiding-place of Cartouche, or in twenty-four hours you are +broken on the wheel.' Vainly did Du Chatelet protest his ignorance. +M. Pacome was resolute, and before the interview was over the robber +confessed that Cartouche had given him rendezvous at nine next day. + +In the grey morning thirty soldiers crept forth guided by the traitor, +'en habits de bourgeois et de chasseur,' for the house where Cartouche +had lain. It was an inn, kept by one Savard, near la Haulte Borne de la +Courtille; and the soldiers, though they lacked not numbers, approached +the chieftain's lair shaking with terror. In front marched Du Chatelet; +the rest followed in Indian file, ten paces apart. When the traitor +reached the house, Savard recognised him for a friend, and entertained +him with familiar speech. 'Is there anybody upstairs?' demanded Du +Chatelet. 'No,' replied Savard. 'Are the four women upstairs?' asked Du +Chatelet again. 'Yes, they are,' came the answer: for Savard knew the +password of the day. Instantly the soldiers filled the tavern, and, +mounting the staircase, discovered Cartouche with his three lieutenants, +Balagny, Limousin, and Blanchard. One of the four still lay abed; but +Cartouche, with all the dandy's respect for his clothes, was mending his +breeches. The others hugged a flagon of wine over the fire. + +So fell the scourge of Paris into the grip of justice. But once under +lock and key, he displayed all the qualities which made him supreme. His +gaiety broke forth into a light-hearted contempt of his gaolers, and +the Lieutenant Criminel, who would interrogate him, was covered with +ridicule. Not for an instant did he bow to fate: all shackled as he was, +his legs engarlanded in heavy chains--which he called his garters--he +tempered his merriment with the meditation of escape. From the first he +denied all knowledge of Cartouche, insisting that his name was Charles +Bourguignon, and demanding burgundy, that he might drink to his country +and thus prove him a true son of the soil. Not even the presence of his +mother and brother abashed him. He laughed them away as impostors, hired +by a false justice to accuse and to betray the innocent. No word of +confession crossed his lips, and he would still entertain the officers +of the law with joke and epigram. + +Thus he won over a handful of the Guard, and, begging for solitude, he +straightway set about escape with a courage and an address which Jack +Sheppard might have envied. His delicate ear discovered that a cellar +lay beneath his cell; and with the old nail which lies on the floor of +every prison he made his way downwards into a boxmaker's shop. But a +barking dog spoiled the enterprise: the boxmaker and his daughter +were immediately abroad, and once more Cartouche was lodged in prison, +weighted with still heavier garters. + +Then came a period of splendid notoriety: he held his court, he gave an +easy rein to his wit, he received duchesses and princes with an air of +amiable patronage. Few there were of his visitants who left him without +a present of gold, and thus the universal robber was further rewarded by +his victims. His portrait hung in every house, and his thin, hard face, +his dry, small features were at last familiar to the whole of France. M. +Grandval made him the hero of an epic--'Le Vice Puni.' Even the theatre +was dominated by his presence; and while Arlequin-Cartouche was greeted +with thunders of applause at the Italiens, the more serious Francais set +Cartouche upon the stage in three acts, and lavished upon its theme the +resources of a then intelligent art. M. Le Grand, author of the piece, +deigned to call upon the king of thieves, spoke some words of argot with +him, and by way of conscience money gave him a hundred crowns. + +Cartouche set little store by such patronage. He pocketed the crowns, +and then put an end to the comedy by threatening that if it were played +again the companions of Cartouche would punish all such miscreants as +dared to make him a laughing stock. For Cartouche would endure ridicule +at no man's hand. At the very instant of his arrest, all bare-footed as +he was, he kicked a constable who presumed to smile at his discomfiture. +His last days were spent in resolute abandonment. True, he once +attempted to beat out his brains with the fetters that bound him; +true, also, he took a poison that had been secretly conveyed within the +prison. But both attempts failed, and, more scrupulously watched, he had +no other course than jollity. Lawyers and priests he visited with a +like and bitter scorn, and when, on November 27, 1721, he was led to the +scaffold, not a word of confession or contrition had been dragged from +him. + +To the last moment he cherished the hope of rescue, and eagerly he +scanned the crowd for the faces of his comrades. But the gang, trusting +to its leader's nobility, had broken its oath. With contemptuous dignity +Cartouche determined upon revenge: proudly he turned to the priest, +begging a respite and the opportunity of speech. Forgotten by his +friends, he resolved to spare no single soul: he betrayed even his +mistresses to justice. + +Of his gang, forty were in the service of Mlle. de Montpensier, who +was already in Spain; while two obeyed the Duchesse de Ventadour as +valets-de-pied. His confession, in brief, was so dangerous a document, +it betrayed the friends and servants of so many great houses, that the +officers of the Law found safety for their patrons in its destruction, +and not a line of the hero's testimony remains. The trial of his +comrades dragged on for many a year, and after Cartouche had been +cruelly broken on the wheel, not a few of the gang, of which he had +been at once the terror and inspiration, suffered a like fate. Such the +career and such the fitting end of the most distinguished marauder the +world has known. Thackeray, with no better guide than a chap-book, was +minded to belittle him, now habiting him like a scullion, now sending +him forth on some petty errand of cly-faking. But for all Thackeray's +contempt his fame is still undimmed, and he has left the reputation of +one who, as thief unrivalled, had scarce his equal as wit and dandy +even in the days when Louis the Magnificent was still a memory and an +example. + + + + +III--A PARALLEL + +(SHEPPARD AND CARTOUCHE) + + +IF the seventeenth century was the golden age of the hightobyman, it was +at the advent of the eighteenth that the burglar and street-robber plied +their trade with the most distinguished success, and it was the good +fortune of both Cartouche and Sheppard to be born in the nick of time. +Rivals in talent, they were also near contemporaries, and the Scourge of +Paris may well have been famous in the purlieus of Clare Market before +Jack the Slip-String paid the last penalty of his crimes. As each of +these great men harboured a similar ambition, so their careers are +closely parallel. Born in a humble rank of life, Jack, like Cartouche, +was the architect of his own fortune; Jack, like Cartouche, lived to be +flattered by noble dames and to claim the solicitude of his Sovereign; +and each owed his pre-eminence rather to natural genius than to a +sympathetic training. + +But, for all the Briton's artistry, the Frenchman was in all points save +one the superior. Sheppard's brain carried him not beyond the wants of +to-day and the extortions of Poll Maggot. + +Who knows but he might have been a respectable citizen, with never a +chance for the display of his peculiar talent, had not hunger and his +mistress's greed driven him upon the pad? History records no brilliant +robbery of his own planning, and so circumscribed was his imagination +that he must needs pick out his own friends and benefactors for +depredation. His paltry sense of discipline permitted him to be betrayed +even by his brother and pupil, and there was no cracksman of his time +over whose head he held the rod of terror. Even his hatred of Jonathan +Wild was the result not of policy but of prejudice. Cartouche, on the +other hand, was always perfect when at work. The master of himself, he +was also the master of his fellows. There was no detail of civil war +that he had not made his own, and he still remains, after nearly two +centuries, the greatest captain the world has seen. Never did he permit +an enterprise to fail by accident; never was he impelled by hunger or +improvidence to fight a battle unprepared. His means were always neatly +fitted to their end, as is proved by the truth that, throughout his +career, he was arrested but once, and then not by his own inadvertence +but by the treachery of others. + +Yet from the moment of arrest Jack Sheppard asserted his magnificent +superiority. If Cartouche was a sorry bungler at prison-breaking, +Sheppard was unmatched in this dangerous art. The sport of the one was +to break in, of the other to break out. True, the Briton proved his +inferiority by too frequently placing himself under lock and key; but +you will forgive his every weakness for the unexampled skill wherewith +he extricated himself from the stubbornest dungeon. Cartouche would +scarce have given Sheppard a menial's office in his gang. How cordially +Sheppard would have despised Cartouche's solitary experiment in escape! +To be foiled by a dog and a boxmaker's daughter! Would not that have +seemed contemptible to the master breaker of those unnumbered doors and +walls which separate the Castle from the freedom of Newgate roof? + +Such, then, is the contrast between the heroes. Sheppard claims our +admiration for one masterpiece. Cartouche has a sheaf of works, which +shall carry him triumphantly to the remotest future. + +And when you forget a while professional rivalry, and consider the +delicacies of leisure, you will find the Frenchman's greatness still +indisputable. At all points he was the prettier gentleman. Sheppard, to +be sure, had a sense of finery, but he was so unused to grandeur +that vulgarity always spoiled his effects. When he hied him from the +pawnshop, laden with booty, he must e'en cram what he could not wear +into his pockets; and doubtless his vulgar lack of reticence made +detection easier. Cartouche, on the other hand, had an unfailing sense +of proportion, and was never more dressed than became the perfect dandy. +He was elegant, he was polished, he was joyous. He drank wine, while the +other soaked himself in beer; he despised whatever was common, while his +rival knew but the coarser flavours of life. + +The one was distinguished by a boisterous humour, a swaggering pride in +his own prowess; the wit of the other might be edged like a knife, nor +would he ever appeal for a spectacle to the curiosity of the mob. +Both were men of many mistresses, but again in his conduct with women +Cartouche showed an honester talent. Sheppard was at once the prey and +the whipping-block of his two infamous doxies, who agreed in deformity +of feature as in contempt for their lover. Cartouche, on the other hand, +chose his cabaret for the wit of its patronne, and was always happy in +the elegance and accomplishment of his companions. One point of +likeness remains. The two heroes resembled each other not only in their +profession, but in their person. Though their trade demanded physical +strength, each was small and slender of build. 'A little, slight-limbed +lad,' says the historian of Sheppard. 'A thin, spare frame,' sings the +poet of Cartouche. Here, then, neither had the advantage, and if in the +shades Cartouche despises the clumsiness and vulgarity of his rival, +Sheppard may still remember the glory of Newgate, and twit the Frenchman +with the barking of the boxmaker's dog. But genius is the talent of the +dead, and the wise, who are not partisans, will not deny to the one or +to the other the possession of the rarer gift. + + + + +VAUX + + +TO Haggart, who babbled on the Castle Rock of Willie Wallace and +was only nineteen when he danced without the music; to Simms, alias +Gentleman Harry, who showed at Tyburn how a hero could die; to George +Barrington, the incomparably witty and adroit--to these a full meed of +honour has been paid. Even the coarse and dastardly Freney has achieved, +with Thackeray's aid (and Lever's) something of a reputation. But +James Hardy Vaux, despite his eloquent bid for fame, has not found his +rhapsodist. Yet a more consistent ruffian never pleaded for mercy. From +his early youth until in 1819 he sent forth his Memoirs to the world, he +lived industriously upon the cross. There was no racket but he worked it +with energy and address. Though he practised the more glorious crafts of +pickpocket and shoplifter, he did not despise the begging-letter, and +he suffered his last punishment for receiving what another's courage had +conveyed. His enterprise was not seldom rewarded with success, and for a +decade of years he continued to preserve an appearance of gentility; but +it is plain, even from his own narrative, that he was scarce an +artist, and we shall best understand him if we recognise that he was +a Philistine among thieves. He lived in an age of pocket-picking, and +skill in this branch is the true test of his time. A contemporary of +Barrington, he had before him the most brilliant of examples, which +might properly have enforced the worth of a simple method. But, though +he constantly brags of his success at Drury Lane, we take not his +generalities for gospel, and the one exploit whose credibility +is enforced with circumstance was pitiful both in conception and +performance. A meeting of freeholders at the 'Mermaid Tavern,' Hackney, +was the occasion, and after drawing blank upon blank, Vaux succeeded at +last in extracting a silver snuff-box. Now, his clumsiness had suggested +the use of the scissors, and the victim not only discovered the scission +in his coat, but caught the thief with the implements of his art upon +him. By a miracle of impudence Vaux escaped conviction, but he deserved +the gallows for his want of principle, and not even sympathy could have +let drop a tear, had justice seized her due. On the straight or on +the cross the canons of art deserve respect; and a thief is great, +not because he is a thief, but because, in filling his own pocket, he +preserves from violence the legitimate traditions of his craft. + +But it was in conflict with the jewellers that Vaux best proved his +mettle. It was his wont to clothe himself 'in the most elegant attire,' +and on the pretence of purchase to rifle the shops of Piccadilly. +For this offence--'pinching' the Cant Dictionary calls it--he did his +longest stretch of time, and here his admirable qualities of cunning +and coolness found their most generous scope. A love of fine clothes +he shared with all the best of his kind, and he visited Mr Bilger--the +jeweller who arrested him--magnificently arrayed. He wore a black coat +and waistcoat, blue pantaloons, Hessian boots, and a hat 'in the extreme +of the newest fashion.' He was also resplendent with gold watch and +eye-glass. His hair was powdered, and a fawney sparkled on his dexter +fam. The booty was enormous, and a week later he revisited the shop +on another errand. This second visit was the one flash of genius in a +somewhat drab career: the jeweller was so completely dumfounded, that +Vaux might have got clean away. But though he kept discreetly out of +sight for a while, at last he drifted back to his ancient boozing-ken, +and was there betrayed to a notorious thief-catcher. The inevitable +sentence of death followed. It was commuted after the fashion of the +time, and Vaux, having sojourned a while at the Hulks, sought for a +second time the genial airs of Botany Bay. + +His vanity and his laziness were alike invincible. He believed himself +a miracle of learning as well as a perfect thief, and physical toil +was the sole 'lay' for which he professed no capacity. For a while +he corrected the press for a printer, and he roundly asserts that his +knowledge of literature and of foreign tongues rendered him invaluable. +It was vanity again that induced him to assert his innocence when he +was lagged for so vulgar a crime as stealing a wipe from a tradesman +in Chancery Lane. At the moment of arrest he was on his way to purchase +base coin from a Whitechapel bit-faker: but, despite his nefarious +errand, he is righteously wrathful at what he asserts was an unjust +conviction, and henceforth he assumed the crown of martyrdom. His first +and last ambition during the intervals of freedom was gentility, and so +long as he was not at work he lived the life of a respectable grocer. +Although the casual Cyprian flits across his page, he pursued the one +flame of his life for the good motive, and he affects to be a very model +of domesticity. The sentiment of piety also was strong upon him, and if +he did not, like the illustrious Peace, pray for his jailer, he rivalled +the Prison Ordinary in comforting the condemned. Had it only been his +fate to die on the gallows, how unctuous had been his croak! + +The text of his 'Memoirs' having been edited, it is scarce possible +to define his literary talent. The book, as it stands, is an excellent +piece of narrative, but it loses somewhat by the pretence of style. The +man's invulnerable conceit prevented an absolute frankness, and there is +little enough hilarity to correct the acid sentiment and the intolerable +vows of repentance. Again, though he knows his subject, and can patter +flash with the best, his incorrigible respectability leads him to ape +the manner of a Grub Street hack, and to banish to a vocabulary those +pearls of slang which might have added vigour and lustre to his somewhat +tiresome page. However, the thief cannot escape his inevitable defects. +The vanity, the weakness, the sentimentality of those who are born +beasts of prey, yet have the faculty of depredation only half-developed, +are the foes of truth, and it is well to remember that the autobiography +of a rascal is tainted at its source. A congenial pickpocket, equipped +with the self-knowledge and the candour which would enable him to +recognise himself an outlaw and justice his enemy rather than an +instrument of malice, would prove a Napoleon rather than a Vaux. So that +we must e'en accept our Newgate Calendar with its many faults upon its +head, and be content. For it takes a man of genius to write a book, +and the thief who turns author commonly inhabits a paradise of the +second-rate. + + + + +GEORGE BARRINGTON + + +AS Captain Hind was master of the road, George Barrington was (and +remains for ever) the absolute monarch of pickpockets. Though the art, +superseding the cutting of purses, had been practised with courage and +address for half a century before Barrington saw the light, it was his +own incomparable genius that raised thievery from the dangerous valley +of experiment, and set it, secure and honoured, upon the mountain height +of perfection. To a natural habit of depredation, which, being a man +of letters, he was wont to justify, he added a sureness of hand, +a fertility of resource, a recklessness of courage which drove his +contemporaries to an amazed respect, and from which none but the +Philistine will withhold his admiration. An accident discovered his +taste and talent. At school he attempted to kill a companion--the one +act of violence which sullies a strangely gentle career; and outraged +at the affront of a flogging, he fled with twelve guineas and a gold +repeater watch. A vulgar theft this, and no presage of future greatness; +yet it proves the fearless greed, the contempt of private property, +which mark as with a stigma the temperament of the prig. His faculty did +not rust long for lack of use, and at Drogheda, when he was but sixteen, +he encountered one Price, half barnstormer, half thief. Forthwith he +embraced the twin professions, and in the interlude of more serious +pursuits is reported to have made a respectable appearance as Jaffier in +Venice Preserved. For a while he dreamed of Drury Lane and glory; but an +attachment for Miss Egerton, the Belvidera to his own Jaffier, was more +costly than the barns of Londonderry warranted, and, with Price for a +colleague, he set forth on a tour of robbery, merely interrupted through +twenty years by a few periods of enforced leisure. + +His youth, indeed, was his golden age. For four years he practised his +art, chilled by no shadow of suspicion, and his immunity was due as +well to his excellent bearing as to his sleight of hand. In one of the +countless chap-books which dishonour his fame, he is unjustly accused +of relying for his effects upon an elaborate apparatus, half knife, +half scissors, wherewith to rip the pockets of his victims. The mere +backbiting of envy! An artistic triumph was never won save by legitimate +means; and the hero who plundered the Dulce of L--r at Ranelagh, who +emptied the pockets of his acquaintance without fear of exposure, +who all but carried off the priceless snuff-box of Count Orloff, most +assuredly followed his craft in full simplicity and with a proper +scorn of clumsy artifice. At his first appearance he was the master, +sumptuously apparelled, with Price for valet. At Dublin his birth and +quality were never questioned, and when he made a descent upon London +it was in company with Captain W. H--n, who remained for years his loyal +friend. He visited Brighton as the chosen companion of Lord Ferrers +and the wicked Lord Lyttelton. His manners and learning were alike +irresistible. Though the picking of pockets was the art and interest of +his life, he was on terms of easy familiarity with light literature, +and he considered no toil too wearisome if only his conversation might +dazzle his victims. Two maxims he charactered upon his heart: the one, +never to run a large risk for a small gain; the other, never to forget +the carriage and diction of a gentleman. + +He never stooped to pilfer, until exposure and decay had weakened his +hand. In his first week at Dublin he carried off L1000, and it was only +his fateful interview with Sir John Fielding that gave him poverty for a +bedfellow. Even at the end, when he slunk from town to town, a notorious +outlaw, he had inspirations of his ancient magnificence, and--at +Chester--he eluded the vigilance of his enemies and captured +L600, wherewith he purchased some months of respectability. Now, +respectability was ever dear to him, and it was at once his pleasure and +profit to live in the highest society. Were it not blasphemy to sully +Barrington with slang you would call him a member of the swell-mob, but, +having cultivated a grave and sober style for himself, he recoiled in +horror from the flash lingo, and his susceptibility demands respect. + +He kept a commonplace book! Was ever such thrift in a thief? Whatever +images or thoughts flashed through his brain, he seized them on paper, +even 'amidst the jollity of a tavern, or in the warmth of an interesting +conversation.' Was it then strange that he triumphed as a man of +fashionable and cultured leisure? He would visit Ranelagh with the +most distinguished, and turn a while from epigram and jest to empty the +pocket of a rich acquaintance. And ever with so tactful a certainty, +with so fine a restraint of the emotions, that suspicion was +preposterous. To catalogue his exploits is superfluous, yet let it be +recorded that once he went to Court, habited as a clergyman, and came +home the richer for a diamond order, Lord C--'s proudest decoration. +Even the assault upon Prince Orloff was nobly planned. Barrington had +precise intelligence of the marvellous snuff-box--the Empress's own gift +to her lover; he knew also how he might meet the Prince at Drury Lane; +he had even discovered that the Prince for safety hid the jewel in his +vest. But the Prince felt the Prig's hand upon the treasure, and gave an +instant alarm. Over-confidence, maybe, or a too liberal dinner was the +cause of failure, and Barrington, surrounded in a moment, was speedily +in the lock-up. It was the first rebuff that the hero had received, and +straightway his tact and ingenuity left him. The evidence was faulty, +the prosecution declined, and naught was necessary for escape save +presence of mind. Even friends were staunch, and had Barrington told his +customary lie, his character had gone unsullied. Yet having posed for +his friends as a student of the law, at Bow Street he must needs declare +himself a doctor, and the needless discrepancy ruined him. Though he +escaped the gallows, there was an end to the diversions of intellect and +fashion; as he discovered when he visited the House of Lords to hear an +appeal, and Black Rod ejected him at the persuasion of Mr. G--. As yet +unused to insult, he threatened violence against the aggressor, and +finding no bail he was sent on his first imprisonment to the Bridewell +in Tothill Fields. Rapid, indeed, was the descent. At the first grip of +adversity, he forgot his cherished principles, and two years later the +loftiest and most elegant gentlemen that ever picked a pocket was at the +Hulks--for robbing a harlot at Drury Lane! Henceforth, his insolence +and artistry declined, and, though to the last there were intervals of +grandeur, he spent the better part of fifteen years in the commission of +crimes, whose very littleness condemned them. At last an exile from St. +James's and Ranelagh, he was forced into a society which still further +degraded him. Hitherto he had shunned the society of professed thieves; +in his golden youth he had scorned to shelter him in the flash kens, +which were the natural harbours of pickpockets. But now, says his +biographer, he began to seek evil company, and, the victim of his own +fame, found safety only in obscene concealment. + +At the Hulks he recovered something of his dignity, and discretion +rendered his first visit brief enough. Even when he was committed on a +second offence, and had attempted suicide, he was still irresistible, +and he was discharged with several years of imprisonment to run. But, +in truth, he was born for honour and distinction, and common actions, +common criminals, were in the end distasteful to him. In his heyday +he stooped no further than to employ such fences as might profitably +dispose of his booty, and the two partners of his misdeeds were both +remarkable. + +James, the earlier accomplice affected clerical attire, and in 1791 'was +living in a Westphalian monastery, to which he some years ago retired, +in an enviable state of peace and penitence, respected for his talents, +and loved for his amiable manners, by which he is distinguished in an +eminent degree.' The other ruffian, Lowe by name, was known to his own +Bloomsbury Square for a philanthropic and cultured gentleman, yet only +suicide saved him from the gallows. And while Barrington was wise in the +choice of his servants, his manners drove even strangers to admiration. +Policemen and prisoners were alike anxious to do him honour. Once when +he needed money for his own defence, his brother thieves, whom he had +ever shunned and despised, collected L100 for the captain of their +guild. Nor did gaoler and judge ever forget the respect due to a +gentleman. When Barrington was tried and condemned for the theft of Mr. +Townsend's watch at Enfield Races--September 15, 1790, was the day of +his last transgression--one knows not which was the more eloquent in his +respect, the judge or the culprit. + +But it was not until the pickpocket set out for Botany Bay that he took +full advantage of his gentlemanly bearing. To thrust 'Mr.' Barrington +into the hold was plainly impossible, even though transportation +for seven years was his punishment. Wherefore he was admitted to +the boatswain's mess, was allowed as much baggage as a first-class +passenger, and doubtless beguiled the voyage (for others) with the +information of a well-stored mind. By an inspiration of luck he checked +a mutiny, holding the quarter-deck against a mob of ruffians with +no weapon but a marline-spike. And hereafter, as he tells you in his +'Voyage to New South Wales,' he was accorded the fullest liberty to come +or go. He visited many a foreign port with the officers of the ship; he +packed a hundred note-books with trite and superfluous observations; +he posed, in brief, as the captain of the ship without responsibility. +Arrived at Port Jackson, he was acclaimed a hero, and received with +obsequious solicitude by the Governor, who promised that his 'future +situation should be such as would render his banishment from England as +little irksome as possible.' Forthwith he was appointed high constable +of Paramatta, and, like Vautrin, who might have taken the youthful +Barrington for another Rastignac, he ended his days the honourable +custodian of less fortunate convicts. Or, as a broadside ballad has it, + + He left old Drury's flash purlieus, + To turn at last a copper. + +Never did he revert to his ancient practice. If in his youth he had +lived the double-life with an effrontery and elegance which Brodie +himself never attained, henceforth his career was single in its +innocence. He became a prig in the less harmful and more offensive +sense. After the orthodox fashion he endeared himself to all who knew +him, and ruled Paramatta with an equable severity. Having cultivated the +humanities for the base purposes of his trade, he now devoted himself +to literature with an energy of dulness, becoming, as it were, a liberal +education personified. His earlier efforts had been in verse, and you +wonder that no enterprising publisher had ventured on a limited edition. +Time was he composed an ode to Light, and once recovering from a fever +contracted at Ballyshannon, he addressed a few burning lines to Hygeia: + + Hygeia! thou whose eyes display + The lustre of meridian day; + +and so on for endless couplets. Then, had he not celebrated in immortal +verse his love for Miss Egerton, untimely drowned in the waters of +the Boyne? But now, as became the Constable of Paramatta, he chose the +sterner medium, and followed up his 'Voyage to New South Wales' with +several exceeding trite and valuable histories. + +His most ambitious work was dedicated in periods of unctuous piety +to his Majesty King George III., and the book's first sentence is +characteristic of his method and sensibility: 'In contemplating the +origin, rise, and fall of nations, the mind is alternately filled with +a mixture of sacred pain and pleasure.' Would you read further? Then you +will find Fauna and Flora, twin goddesses of ineptitude, flitting across +the page, unreadable as a geographical treatise. His first masterpiece +was translated into French, anno VI., and the translator apologises that +war with England alone prevents the compilation of a suitable biography. +Was ever thief treated with so grave a consideration? + +Then another work was prefaced by the Right Hon. William Eden, and +all were 'embellished with beautiful coloured plates,' and ran through +several editions. Once only did he return to poetry, the favoured medium +of his youth, and he returned to write an imperishable line. Even then +his pedantry persuaded him to renounce the authorship, and to disparage +the achievement. The occasion was the opening of a theatre at Sydney, +wherein the parts were sustained by convicts. The cost of admission to +the gallery was one shilling, paid in money, flour, meat, or spirits. + +The play was entitled The Revenge and the Hotel, and Barrington provided +the prologue, which for one passage is for ever memorable. Thus it runs: + + From distant climes, o'er widespread seas, we come, + Though not with much eclat or beat of drum; + True patriots we, for be it understood, + We left our country for our country's good. + No private views disgraced our generous zeal, + What urged our travels was our country's weal; + And none will doubt, but that our emigration + Has proved most useful to the British nation. + +'We left our country for our country's good.' That line, thrown +fortuitously into four hundred pages of solid prose, has emerged to +become the common possession of Fleet Street. It is the man's one title +to literary fame, for spurning the thievish practice he knew so well, +he was righteously indignant when The London Spy was fathered upon +him. Though he emptied his contemporary's pockets of many thousands, +he enriched the Dictionary of Quotations with one line, which will be +repeated so long as there is human hand to wield a pen. And, if the High +Constable of Paramatta was tediously respectable, George Barrington, the +Prig, was a man of genius. + + + + +THE SWITCHER AND GENTLEMAN HARRY + + + + +I--THE SWITCHER + + +DAVID HAGGART was born at Canonmills, with no richer birthright than +thievish fingers and a left hand of surpassing activity. The son of a +gamekeeper, he grew up a long-legged, red-headed callant, lurking in the +sombre shadow of the Cowgate, or like the young Sir Walter, championing +the Auld Town against the New on the slopes of Arthur's Seat. Kipping +was his early sin; but the sportsman's instinct, born of his father's +trade, was so strong within him, that he pinched a fighting cock before +he was breeched, and risked the noose for horse-stealing when marbles +should have engrossed his boyish fancy. Turbulent and lawless, he +bitterly resented the intolerable restraint of a tranquil life, and, at +last, in the hope of a larger liberty, he enlisted for a drummer in the +Norfolk Militia, stationed at the moment in Edinburgh Castle. A brief, +insubordinate year, misspent in his country's service, proved him +hopeless of discipline: he claimed his discharge, and henceforth he was +free to follow the one craft for which nature and his own ambition had +moulded him. + + +Like Chatterton, like Rimbaud, Haggart came into the full possession of +his talent while still a child. A Barrington of fourteen, he knew every +turn and twist of his craft, before he escaped from school. His youthful +necessities were munificently supplied by facile depredation, and the +only hindrance to immediate riches was his ignorance of flash kens where +he might fence his plunder. Meanwhile he painted his soul black with +wickedness. Such hours as he could snatch from the profitable conduct +of his trade he devoted to the austere debauchery of Leith or the Golden +Acre. Though he knew not the seduction of whisky, he missed never a +dance nor a raffle, joining the frolics of prigs and callets in complete +forgetfulness of the shorter catechism. In vain the kirk compared him to +a 'bottle in the smoke'; in vain the minister whispered of hell and the +gallows; his heart hardened, as his fingers grew agile, and when, at +sixteen, he left his father's house for a sporting life, he had not his +equal in the three kingdoms for cunning and courage. + +His first accomplice was Barney M'Guire, who--until a fourteen stretch +sent him to Botany Bay--played Clytus to David's Alexander, and it was +at Portobello Races that their brilliant partnership began. Hitherto +Haggart had worked by stealth; he had tracked his booty under the cloud +of night. Now was the moment to prove his prowess in the eye of day, to +break with a past which he already deemed ignoble. His heart leaped with +the occasion: he tackled his adventure with the hot-head energy of a new +member, big with his maiden speech. The victim was chosen in an instant: +a backer, whose good fortune had broken the bookmakers. There was +no thief on the course who did not wait, in hungry appetence, the +sportsman's descent from the stand; yet the novice outstripped them all. +'I got the first dive at his keek-cloy,' he writes in his simple, heroic +style, 'and was so eager on my prey, that I pulled out the pocket along +with the money, and nearly upset the gentleman.' A steady brain saved +him from the consequence of an o'erbuoyant enthusiasm. The notes were +passed to Barney in a flash, and when the sportsman turned upon his +assailant, Haggart's hands were empty. + +Thereupon followed an infinite series of brilliant exploits. With Barney +to aid, he plundered the Border like a reiver. He stripped the yeomen +of Tweedside with a ferocity which should have avenged the disgrace of +Flodden. More than once he ransacked Ecclefechan, though it is unlikely +that he emptied the lean pocket of Thomas Carlyle. There was not a +gaff from Newcastle to the Tay which he did not haunt with sedulous +perseverance; nor was he confronted with failure, until his figure +became a universal terror. His common method was to price a horse, and +while the dealer showed Barney the animal's teeth, Haggart would slip +under the uplifted arm, and ease the blockhead of his blunt. Arrogant in +his skill, delighted with his manifold triumphs, Haggart led a life of +unbroken prosperity under the brisk air of heaven, and, despite the +risk of his profession, he remained two years a stranger to poverty +and imprisonment. His worst mishap was to slip his forks into an empty +pocket, or to encounter in his cups a milvadering horse-dealer; but his +joys were free and frank, while he exulted in his success with a boyish +glee. 'I was never happier in all my life than when I fingered all this +money,' he exclaims when he had captured the comfortable prize of two +hundred pounds. And then he would make merry at Newcastle or York, +forgetting the knowing ones for a while, going abroad in white cape and +tops, and flicking his leg like a gentleman with a dandy whip. But at +last Barney and a wayward ambition persuaded him to desert his proper +craft for the greater hazard of cracking a crib, and thus he was +involved in his ultimate ruin. He incurred and he deserved the untoward +fate of those who overlook their talents' limitation; and when this +master of pickpockets followed Barney through the window of a secluded +house upon the York Road, he might already have felt the noose +tightening at his neck. The immediate reward of this bungled attack was +thirty pounds, but two days later he was committed with Barney to +the Durham Assizes, where he exchanged the obscurity of the perfect +craftsman for the notoriety of the dangerous gaol-bird. + +For the moment, however, he recovered his freedom: breaking prison, he +straightway conveyed a fiddlestick to his comrade, and in a twinkling +was at Newcastle again, picking up purses well lined with gold, and +robbing the bumpkins of their scouts and chats. But the time of security +was overpast. Marked and suspicious, he began to fear the solitude of +the country; he left the horse-fair for the city, and sought in the +budging-kens of Edinburgh the secrecy impossible on the hill-side. A +clumsy experiment in shop-lifting doubled his danger, and more than once +he saw the inside of the police-office. Henceforth, he was free of the +family; he loafed in the Shirra-Brae; he knew the flash houses of Leith +and the Grassmarket. With Jean Johnston, the blowen of his choice, +he smeared his hands with the squalor of petty theft, and the drunken +recklessness wherewith he swaggered it abroad hastened his approaching +downfall. + +With a perpetual anxiety to avoid the nippers his artistry dwindled. The +left hand, invincible on the Cheviots, seemed no better than a bunch +of thumbs in the narrow ways of Edinburgh; and after innumerable +misadventures Haggart was safely lodged in Dumfries gaol. No sooner was +he locked within his cell than his restless brain planned a generous +escape. He would win liberty for his fellows as well as for himself, and +after a brief council a murderous plot was framed and executed. A stone +slung in a handkerchief sent Morrin, the gaoler, to sleep; the keys +found on him opened the massy doors; and Haggart was free with a reward +set upon his head. The shock of the enterprise restored his magnanimity. +Never did he display a finer bravery than in this spirited race for his +life, and though three counties were aroused he doubled and ducked to +such purpose that he outstripped John Richardson himself with all his +bloodhounds, and two days later marched into Carlisle disguised in the +stolen rags of a potato-bogle. + +During the few months that remained to him of life he embarked upon a +veritable Odyssey: he scoured Scotland from the Border to St. Andrews, +and finally contrived a journey oversea to Ireland, where he made the +name of Daniel O'Brien a terror to well-doers. Insolent and careless, +he lurched from prison to prison; now it was Armagh that held him, +now Downpatrick, until at last he was thrust on a general charge of +vagabondage and ill-company into Kilmainham, which has since harboured +many a less valiant adventurer than David Haggart. Here the culminating +disgrace overtook him: he was detected in the prison yard by his ancient +enemy, John Richardson, of Dumfries, who dragged him back to Scotland +heavily shackled and charged with murder. So nimble had he proved +himself in extrication, that his captors secured him with pitiless +severity; round his waist he carried an iron belt, whereto were +padlocked the chains, clanking at his wrists and ankles. Thus tortured +and helpless, he was fed 'like a sucking turkey in Bedlam'; but +his sorrows vanished, and his dying courage revived at sight of the +torchlight procession, which set forth from Dumfries to greet his +return. + +His coach was hustled by a mob, thousands strong, eager to catch sight +of Haggart the Murderer, and though the spot where he slew Morrin was +like fire beneath his passing feet, he carried to his cell a heart and a +brain aflame with gratified vanity. His guilt being patent, reprieve was +as hopeless as acquittal, and after the assured condemnation he spent +his last few days with what profit he might in religious and literary +exercises. He composed a memoir, which is a model of its kind; so +diligently did he make his soul, that he could appear on the scaffold +in a chastened spirit of prayerful gratitude; and, being an eminent +scoundrel, he seemed a proper subject for the ministrations of Mr. +George Combe. 'That is the one thing I did not know before,' he +confessed with an engaging modesty, when his bumps were squeezed, +and yet he was more than a match for the amiable phrenologist, whose +ignorance of mankind persuaded him to believe that an illiterate felon +could know himself and analyse his character. + +His character escaped his critics as it escaped himself. Time was +when George Borrow, that other picaroon, surprised the youthful David, +thinking of Willie Wallace upon the Castle Rock, and Lavengro's romantic +memory transformed the raw-boned pickpocket into a monumental hero, who +lacked nothing save a vast theatre to produce a vast effect. He was a +Tamerlane, robbed of his opportunity; a valiant warrior, who looked in +vain for a battlefield; a marauder who climbed the scaffold not for the +magnitude, but for the littleness of his sins. Thus Borrow, in complete +misunderstanding of the rascal's qualities. + +Now, Haggart's ambition was as circumscribed as his ability. He died, as +he was born, an expert cly-faker, whose achievements in sleight of hand +are as yet unparalleled. Had the world been one vast breast pocket his +fish-hook fingers would have turned it inside out. But it was not his +to mount a throne, or overthrow a dynasty. 'My forks,' he boasted, 'are +equally long, and they never fail me.' That is at once the reason +and the justification of his triumph. Born with a consummate artistry +tingling at his finger-tips, how should he escape the compulsion of a +glorious destiny? Without fumbling or failure he discovered the single +craft for which fortune had framed him, and he pursued it with a courage +and an industry which gave him not a kingdom, but fame and booty, +exceeding even his greedy aspiration. No Tamerlane he, questing for a +continent, but David Haggart, the man with the long forks, happy if he +snatched his neighbour's purse. + +Before all things he respected the profession which his left hand made +inevitable, and which he pursued with unconquerable pride. Nor in his +inspired youth was plunder his sole ambition: he cultivated the garden +of his style with the natural zeal of the artist; he frowned upon the +bungler with a lofty contempt. His materials were simplicity itself: +his forks, which were always with him, and another's well-filled pocket, +since, sensible of danger, he cared not to risk his neck for a purse +that did not contain so much as would 'sweeten a grawler.' At its +best, his method was always witty--that is the single word which will +characterise it--witty as a piece of Heine's prose, and as dangerous. He +would run over a man's pockets while he spoke with him, returning what +he chose to discard without the lightest breath of suspicion. 'A good +workman,' his contemporaries called him; and they thought it a shame +for him to be idle. Moreover, he did not blunder unconsciously upon his +triumph; he tackled the trade in so fine a spirit of analysis that he +might have been the very Aristotle of his science. 'The keek-cloy,' he +wrote, in his hints to young sportsmen, 'is easily picked. If the notes +are in the long fold just tip them the forks; but if there is a purse +or open money in the case, you must link it.' The breast-pocket, on the +other hand, is a severer test. 'Picking the suck is sometimes a kittle +job,' again the philosopher speaks. 'If the coat is buttoned it must be +opened by slipping past. Then bring the lil down between the flap of the +coat and the body, keeping your spare arm across your man's breast, and +so slip it to a comrade; then abuse the fellow for jostling you.' + + +Not only did he master the tradition of thievery; he vaunted his +originality with the familiar complacence of the scoundrel. Forgetting +that it was by burglary that he was undone, he explains for his public +glorification that he was wont to enter the houses of Leith by forcing +the small window above the outer door. This artifice, his vanity +grumbles, is now common; but he would have all the world understand +that it was his own invention, and he murmurs with the pedantry of the +convicted criminal that it is now set forth for the better protection +of honest citizens. No less admirable in his own eyes was that other +artifice which induced him to conceal such notes as he managed to filch +in the collar of his coat. Thus he eluded the vigilance of the police, +which searched its prey in those days with a sorry lack of cunning. +In truth, Haggart's wits were as nimble as his fingers, and he seldom +failed to render a profitable account of his talents. He beguiled one +of his sojourns in gaol by manufacturing tinder wherewith to light +the prisoners' pipes, and it is not astonishing that he won a general +popularity. In Ireland, when the constables would take him for a Scot, +he answered in high Tipperary, and saved his skin for a while by a +brogue which would not have shamed a modern patriot. But quick as were +his wits, his vanity always outstripped them, and no hero ever bragged +of his achievements with a louder effrontery. + + Now all you ramblers in mourning go, + For the prince of ramblers is lying low, + And all you maidens that love the game, + Put on your mourning veils again. + +Thus he celebrated his downfall in a ballad that has the true Newgate +ring, and verily in his own eyes he was a hero who carried to the +scaffold a dauntless spirit unstained by treachery. + +He believed himself an adept in all the arts; as a squire of dames he +held himself peerless, and he assured the ineffable Combe, who recorded +his flippant utterance with a credulous respect, that he had sacrificed +hecatombs of innocent virgins to his importunate lust. Prose and verse +trickled with equal facility from his pen, and his biography is a +masterpiece. Written in the pedlar's French as it was misspoken in +the hells of Edinburgh, it is a narrative of uncommon simplicity and +directness, marred now and again by such superfluous reflections as are +the natural result of thievish sentimentality. He tells his tale without +paraphrase or adornment, and the worthy Writer to the Signet, who +prepared the work for the Press, would have asked three times the space +to record one-half the adventures. 'I sunk upon it with my forks +and brought it with me'; 'We obtained thirty-three pounds by this +affair'--is there not the stalwart flavour of the epic in these plain, +unvarnished sentences? + +His other accomplishments are pallid in the light of his brilliant left +hand. Once, at Derry--he attended a cock-fight, and beguiled an interval +by emptying the pockets of a lucky bookmaker. An expert, who watched +the exploit in admiration, could not withhold a compliment. 'You are the +Switcher,' he exclaimed; 'some take all, but you leave nothing.' And it +is as the Switcher that Haggart keeps his memory green. + + + + +II--GENTLEMAN HARRY + + +'DAMN ye both! stop, or I will blow your brains out!' Thus it was that +Harry Simms greeted his victims, proving in a phrase that the heroic +age of the rumpad was no more. Forgotten the debonair courtesy of +Claude Duval! Forgotten the lightning wit, the swift repartee of the +incomparable Hind! No longer was the hightoby-gloak a 'gentleman' of +the road; he was a butcher, if not a beggar, on horseback; a braggart +without the courage to pull a trigger; a swashbuckler, oblivious of that +ancient style which converted the misery of surrender into a privilege. +Yet Harry Simms, the supreme adventurer of his age, was not without +distinction; his lithe form and his hard-ridden horse were the common +dread of England; his activity was rewarded with a princely treasure; +and if his method were lacking in urbanity, the excuse is that he danced +not to the brilliant measure of the Cavaliers, but limped to the clumsy +fiddle-scraping of the early Georges. + +At Eton, where a too-indulgent grandmother had placed him, he ransacked +the desks of his school-fellows, and avenged a birching by emptying his +master's pockets. Wherefore he lost the hope of a polite education, and +instead of proceeding with a clerkly dignity to King's College, in +the University of Cambridge, he was ignominiously apprenticed to a +breeches-maker. The one restraint was as irksome as the other, and Harry +Simms abandoned the needle, as he had scorned the grammar, to go upon +the pad. Though his early companions were scragged at Tyburn, the +light-fingered rascal was indifferent to their fate, and squandering +such booty as fell to his share, he bravely 'turned out' for more. +Tottenham Court Fair was the theatre of his childish exploits, and there +he gained some little skill in the picking of pockets. But a spell of +bad trade brought him to poverty, and he attempted to replenish an empty +pocket by the childish expedient of a threatening letter. + +The plan was conceived and executed with a futility which ensured an +instant capture. The bungler chose a stranger at haphazard, commanding +him, under penalty of death, to lay five guineas upon a gun in Tower +Wharf; the guineas were cunningly deposited, and the rascal, caught +with his hand upon the booty, was committed to Newgate. Youth, and the +intercession of his grandmother, procured a release, unjustified by the +infamous stupidity of the trick. Its very clumsiness should have sent +him over sea; and it is wonderful that from a beginning of so little +promise, he should have climbed even the first slopes of greatness. +However, the memory of gaol forced him to a brief interlude of honesty; +for a while he wore the pink coat of Colonel Cunningham's postillion, +and presently was promoted to the independence of a hackney coach. + +Thus employed, he became acquainted with the famous Cyprians of Covent +Garden, who, loving him for his handsome face and sprightly gesture, +seduced him to desert his cab for an easier profession. So long as the +sky was fair, he lived under their amiable protection; but the summer +having chased the smarter gentry from town, the ladies could afford him +no more than would purchase a horse and a pair of pistols, so that Harry +was compelled to challenge fortune on the high road. His first journey +was triumphantly successful. A post-chaise and a couple of coaches +emptied their wealth into his hands, and, riding for London, he was able +to return the favours lavished upon him by Covent Garden. At the first +touch of gold he was transformed to a finished blade. He purchased +himself a silver-hilted sword, which he dangled over a discreet suit +of black velvet; a prodigious run of luck at the gaming-tables kept his +purse well lined; and he made so brilliant an appearance in his familiar +haunts that he speedily gained the name of 'Gentleman Harry.' But the +money, lightly won, was lightly spent. The tables took back more +than they gave, and before long Simms was astride his horse again, +flourishing his irons, and crying: 'Stand and deliver'! upon every road +in England. + +Epping Forest was his general hunting-ground, but his enterprise took +him far afield, and if one night he galloped by starlight across +Bagshot Heath, another he was holding up the York stage with unbridled +insolence. He robbed, he roared, he blustered with praiseworthy +industry; and good luck coming to the aid of caution, he escaped for +a while the necessary punishment of his crimes. It was on Stockbridge +Downs that he met his first check. + +He had stopped a chariot, and came off with a hatful of gold, but the +victims, impatient of disaster, raised the county, and Gentleman Harry +was laid by the heels. Never at a loss, he condescended to a cringing +hypocrisy: he whined, he whimpered, he babbled of reform, he plied his +prosecutors with letters so packed with penitence, that they abandoned +their case, and in a couple of days Simms had eased a collector at +Eversey Bank of three hundred pounds. For this enterprise two others +climbed the gallows, and the robber's pride in his capture was miserably +lessened by the shedding of innocent blood. + +But he forgot his remorse as speedily as he dissipated his money, and +sentimentality neither damped his enjoyment nor restrained his energy. +Even his brief visits to London were turned to the best account; and, +though he would have the world believe him a mere voluptuary, his eye +was bent sternly upon business. If he did lose his money in a gambling +hell, he knew who won it, and spoke with his opponent on the homeward +way. In his eyes a fuddled rake was always fair game, and the stern +windows of St. Clement's Church looked down upon many a profitable +adventure. His most distinguished journey was to Ireland, whither he set +forth to find a market for his stolen treasure. But he determined that +the road should bear its own charges, and he reached Dublin a richer man +than he left London. In three months he was penniless, but he did not +begin trade again until he had recrossed the Channel, and, having got to +work near Chester, he returned to the Piazza fat with bank-notes. + +With success his extravagance increased, and, living the life of a man +about town, he was soon harassed by debt. More than once he was lodged +in the Marshalsea, and as his violent temper resented the interference +of a dun, he became notorious for his assaults upon sheriff's officers. +And thus his poor skill grew poorer: forgetting his trade, he expected +that brandy would ease his embarrassment. At last, sodden with drink, +he enlisted in the Guards, from which regiment he deserted, only to be +pressed aboard a man-of-war. Freed by a clever trick, he took to the +road again, until a paltry theft from a barber transported him to +Maryland. There he turned sailor, and his ship, The Two Sisters, being +taken by a privateer, he contrived to scramble into Portugal, whence he +made his way back to England, and to the only adventure of which he was +master. He landed with no more money than the price of a pistol, but +he prigged a prancer at Bristol horsefair, and set out upon his last +journey. The tide of his fortune was at flood. He crammed his pockets +with watches; he was owner of enough diamonds to set up shop in a +fashionable quarter; of guineas he had as many as would support his +magnificence for half a year; and at last he resolved to quit the road, +and to live like the gentleman he was. To this prudence he was the more +easily persuaded, because not only were the thief-takers eager for +his capture, but he was a double-dyed deserter, whose sole chance of +quietude was a decent obscurity. + +His resolution was taken at St. Albans, and over a comfortable dinner +he pictured a serene and uneventful future. On the morrow he would set +forth to Dublin, sell his handsome stock of jewels, and forget that the +cart ever lumbered up Tyburn Hill. So elated was he with his growing +virtue, that he called for a second bottle, and as the port heated +his blood his fingers tingled for action. A third bottle proved beyond +dispute that only the craven were idle; 'and why,' he exclaimed, +generous with wine, 'should the most industrious ruffler of England +condescend to inaction?' Instantly he summoned the ostler, screaming +for his horse, and before Redburn he had emptied four pockets, and +had exchanged his own tired jade for a fresh and willing beast. Still +exultant in his contempt of cowardice, he faced the Warrington stage, +and made off with his plunder at a drunken gallop. Arrived at Dunstable, +he was so befogged with liquor and pride, that he entered the 'Bull +Inn,' the goal of the very coach he had just encountered. He had scarce +called for a quartern of brandy when the robbed passengers thronged into +the kitchen; and the fright gave him enough sobriety to leave his glass +untasted, and stagger to his horse. In a wild fury of arrogance and +terror, of conflicting vice and virtue, he pressed on to Hockcliffe, +where he took refuge from the rain, and presently, fuddled with more +brandy, he fell asleep over the kitchen fire. + +By this time the hue and cry was raised; and as the hero lay helpless in +the corner three troopers burst into the inn, levelled their pistols at +his head, and threatened death if he put his hand to his pocket. Half +asleep, and wholly drunk, he made not he smallest show of resistance; he +surrendered all his money, watches, and diamonds, save a little that +was sewn into his neckcloth, and sulkily crawled up to his bed-chamber. +Thither the troopers followed him, and having restored some nine pounds +at his urgent demand, they watched his heavy slumbers. For all his +brandy Simms slept but uneasily, and awoke in the night sick with the +remorse which is bred of ruined plans and a splitting head. He got up +wearily, and sat over the fire 'a good deal chagrined,' to quote his own +simple phrase, at his miserable capture. Escape seemed hopeless indeed; +there crouched the vigilant troopers, scowling on their prey. A thousand +plans chased each other through the hero's fuddled brain, and at last +he resolved to tempt the cupidity of his guardians, and to make himself +master of their fire-arms. There were still left him a couple of seals, +one gold, the other silver, and watching his opportunity, Simms flung +them with a flourish in the fire. It fell out as he expected; the hungry +troopers made a dash to save the trinkets; the prisoner seized a brace +of pistols and leapt to the door. But, alas, the pistols missed fire, +Harry was immediately overpowered, and on the morrow was carried, sick +and sorry, before the Justice. From Dunstable he travelled his last +journey to Newgate, and, being condemned at the Old Bailey, he was +hanged till he was dead, and his body thereafter was carried for +dissection to a surgeon's in that same Covent Garden where he first +deserted his hackney cab for the pleasures of the town. + +'Gentleman Harry' was neither a brilliant thief nor a courteous +highwayman. There was no touch of the grand manner even in his prettiest +achievement. His predecessors had made a pistol and a vizard an +overwhelming terror, and he did but profit by their tradition when +he bade the cowed traveller stand and deliver. His profession, as he +practised it, neither demanded skill nor incurred danger. Though he +threatened death at every encounter, you never hear that he pulled a +trigger throughout his career. If his opponent jeered and rode off, he +rode off with a whole skin and a full pocket. Once even this renowned +adventurer accepted the cut of a riding-whip across his face, nor made +any attempt to avenge the insult. But his manifold shortcomings were no +hindrance to his success. Wherever he went, between London and York, +he stopped coaches and levied his tax. A threatening voice, an arched +eyebrow, an arrogant method of fingering an unloaded pistol, conspired +with the craven, indolent habit of the time to make his every journey +a procession of triumph. He was capable of performing all such feats +as the age required of him. But you miss the spirit, the bravery, the +urbanity, and the wit, which made the adventurer of the seventeenth +century a figure of romance. + +One point only of the great tradition did Harry Simms remember. He was +never unwilling to restore a trinket made precious by sentiment. Once +when he took a gold ring from a gentleman's finger a gentlewoman burst +into tears, exclaiming, 'There goes your father's ring.' Whereupon Simms +threw all his booty into a hat, saying, 'For God's sake, take that or +anything else you please.' In all other respects he was a bully, with +the hesitancy of a coward, rather than the proper rival of Hind or +Duval. Apart from the exercise of his trade, he was a very Mohock for +brutality. He would ill-treat his victims, whenever their drunkenness +permitted the freedom, and he had no better gifts for the women who were +kind to him than cruelty and neglect. One of his many imprisonments was +the result of a monstrous ferocity. 'Unluckily in a quarrel,' he tells +you gravely, 'I ran a crab-stick into a woman's eye'; and well did he +deserve his sojourn in the New Prison. At another time he rewarded the +keeper of a coffee-house, who supported him for six months, by stealing +her watch; and, when she grumbled at his insolence, he reflected, with a +chuckle, that she could more easily bear the loss of her watch than the +loss of her lover. Even in his gaiety there was an unpleasant spice +of greed and truculence. Once, when he was still seen in fashionable +company, he went to a masquerade, dressed in a rich Spanish habit, +lent him by a Captain in the Guards, and he made so fine a show that +he captivated a young and beautiful Cyprian, whom, when she would have +treated him with generosity, he did but reward with the loss of all her +jewels. + +Moreover, he had so small a regard for his craft, that he would spoil +his effects by drink or debauchery; and, though a highwayman, he cared +so little for style, that he would as lief trick a drunken gamester as +face his man on Bagshot Heath or beneath the shade of Epping Forest. +You admire not his success, because, like the success of the popular +politician, it depended rather upon his dupes than upon his merit. You +approve not his raffish exploits in the hells of Covent Garden or Drury +Lane. But you cannot withhold respect from his consistent dandyism, and +you are grateful for the record that, engaged in a mean enterprise, he +was dressed 'in a green velvet frock and a short lac'd waistcoat.' Above +all, his picturesque capture at Hockcliffe atones for much stupidity. +The resolution, wavering at the wine glass, the last drunken ride from +St. Albans--these are inventions in experience, which should make Simms +immortal. And when he sits 'by the fireside a good deal chagrined,' +he recalls the arrest of a far greater man--even of Cartouche, who +was surprised by the soldiers at his bedside stitching a torn pair of +breeches. His autobiography, wherein 'he relates the truth as a dying +man,' seemed excellent in the eyes of Borrow, who loved it so well that +he imagined a sentence, ascribed it falsely to Simms, and then rewarded +it with extravagant applause. + +But Gentleman Harry knew how to tell a simple story, and the book, 'all +wrote by myself while under sentence of death,' is his best performance. +In action he had many faults, for, if he was a highwayman among rakes, +he was but a rake among highwaymen. + + + + +A PARALLEL + +(THE SWITCHER AND GENTLEMAN HARRY) + +HAGGART and Simms are united in the praise of Borrow, and in the +generous applause of posterity. Each resumes for his own generation the +prowess of his kind. Each has assured his immortality by an experiment +in literature; and if epic simplicity and rapid narrative are the +virtues of biography, it is difficult to award the prize. The Switcher +preferred to write in the rough lingo, wherein he best expressed +himself. He packs his pages with ill-spelt slang, telling his story of +thievery in the true language of thieves. Gentleman Harry, as became a +person of quality, mimicked the dialect wherewith he was familiar in the +more fashionable gambling-dens of Covent Garden. Both write with out the +smallest suggestion of false shame or idle regret, and a natural vanity +lifts each of them out of the pit of commonplace on to the tableland of +the heroic. They set forth their depredation, as a victorious general +might record his triumphs, and they excel the nimblest Ordinary that +ever penned a dying speech in all the gifts of the historian. + +But when you leave the study for the field, the Switcher instantly +declares his superiority. He had the happiness to practise his craft +in its heyday, while Simms knew but the fag-end of a noble tradition. +Haggart, moreover, was an expert, pursuing a difficult art, while Simms +was a bully, plundering his betters by bluff. Simms boasted no quality +which might be set off against the accurate delicacy of Haggart's hand. +The Englishman grew rich upon a rolling eye and a rusty pistol. He put +on his 'fiercest manner,' and believed that the world would deny him +nothing. The Scot, rejoicing in his exquisite skill, went to work +without fuss or bluster, and added the joy of artistic pride to his +delight in plunder. Though Simm's manner seems the more chivalrous, it +required not one tithe of the courage which was Haggart's necessity. On +horseback, with the semblance of a fire-arm, a man may easily challenge +a coachful of women. It needs a cool brain and a sound courage to +empty a pocket in the watchful presence of spies and policemen. While +Gentleman Harry chose a lonely road, or the cover of night for his +exploits, the Switcher always worked by day, hustled by a crowd of +witnesses. + +Their hours of leisure furnish a yet more striking contrast. Simms was a +polished dandy delighting in his clothes, unhappy if he were deprived +of his bottle and his game. Haggart, on the other hand, was before +all things sealed to his profession. He would have deserted the gayest +masquerade, had he ever strayed into so light a frivolity, for the +chance of lightening a pocket. He tasted but few amusements without the +limits of his craft, and he preserved unto the end a touch of that dour +character which is the heritage of his race. But, withal, he was an +amiable decent body, who would have recoiled in horror from the drunken +brutality of Gentleman Harry. Though he bragged to George Combe of his +pitiless undoing of wenches, he never thrust a crab-stick into a +woman's eye, and he was incapable of rewarding a kindness by robbery and +neglect. Once--at Newcastle--he arrayed himself in a smart white coat +and tops, but the splendour ill became his red-headed awkwardness, and +he would have stood aghast at the satin frocks and velvet waistcoats of +him who broke the hearts of Drury Lane. But if he were gentler in his +life, Haggart was prepared to fight with a more reckless courage when +his trade demanded it. It was the Gentleman's boast that he never +shed the blood of man. When David found a turnkey between himself and +freedom, he did not hesitate to kill, though his remorse was bitter +enough when he neared the gallows. In brief, Haggart was not only the +better craftsman, but the honester fellow, and though his hands were red +with blood, he deserved his death far less than did the more truculent, +less valiant Simms. Each had in his brain the stuff whereof men of +letters are made: this is their parallel. And, by way of contrast, +while the Switcher was an accomplished artist, Gentleman Harry was a +roystering braggart. + + + + +DEACON BRODIE AND CHARLES PEACE + + + + +I--DEACON BRODIE + + +AS William Brodie stood at the bar, on trial for a his life, he seemed +the gallantest gentleman in court. Thither he had been carried in +a chair, and, still conscious of the honour paid him, he flashed a +condescending smile upon his judges. His step was jaunty as ever; his +superb attire well became the Deacon of a Guild. His coat was blue, +his vest a very garden of flowers; while his satin breeches and his +stockings of white silk were splendid in their simplicity. Beneath +a cocked hat his hair was fully dressed and powdered, and even the +prosecuting counsel assailed him with the respect due to a man of +fashion. The fellow's magnificence was thrown into relief by the squalor +of his accomplice. For George Smith had neither the money nor the taste +to disguise himself as a polished rogue, and he huddled as far from his +master as he could in the rags of his mean estate. Nor from this moment +did Brodie ever abate one jot of his dignity. He faced his accusers with +a clear eye and a frigid amiability; he listened to his sentence with +a calm contempt; he laughed complacently at the sorry interludes of +judicial wit; and he faced the last music with a bravery and a cynicism +which bore the stamp of true greatness. + +It was not until after his crime that Brodie's heroism approved itself. +And even then his was a triumph not of skill but of character. Always a +gentleman in manner and conduct, he owed the success and the failure +of his life to this one quality. When in flight he made for Flushing +on board the Endeavour, the other passengers, who knew not his name, +straightway christened him 'the gentleman.' The enterprise itself would +have been impossible to one less persuasively gifted, and its proper +execution is a tribute to the lofty quality of his mind. There was he +in London, a stranger and a fugitive; yet instead of crawling furtively +into a coal-barge he charters a ship, captures the confidence of the +captain, carries the other passengers to Flushing, when they were bound +for Leith, and compels every one to confess his charm! The thief, also, +found him irresistible; and while the game lasted, the flash kens of +Edinburgh murmured the Deacon's name in the hushed whisper of respect. + +His fine temperament disarmed treachery. In London he visited an ancient +doxy of his own, who, with her bully, shielded him from justice, though +betrayal would have met with an ample reward. Smith, if he knew himself +the superior craftsman, trembled at the Deacon's nod, who thus swaggered +it through life, with none to withhold the exacted reverence. To this +same personal compulsion he owed his worldly advancement. Deacon of the +Wrights' Guild while still a young man, he served upon the Council, was +known for one of Edinburgh's honoured citizens, and never went abroad +unmarked by the finger of respectful envy. He was elected in 1773 a +member of the Cape Club, and met at the Isle of Man Arms in Craig's +Close the wittiest men of his time and town. Raeburn, Runciman, and +Ferguson the poet were of the society, and it was with such as these +that Brodie might have wasted his vacant hour. Indeed, at the very +moment that he was cracking cribs and shaking the ivories, he was a +chosen leader of fashion and gaiety; and it was the elegance of the +'gentleman' that distinguished him from his fellows. + +The fop, indeed, had climbed the altitudes of life; the cracksman still +stumbled in the valleys. If he had a ready cunning in the planning of an +enterprise, he must needs bungle at the execution; and had he not been +associated with George Smith, a king of scoundrels, there would be few +exploits to record. And yet for the craft of housebreaker he had one +solid advantage: he knew the locks and bolts of Edinburgh as he knew +his primer--for had he not fashioned the most of them himself? But, +his knowledge once imparted to his accomplices, he cheerfully sank to a +menial's office. In no job did he play a principal's part: he was merely +told off by Smith or another to guard the entrance and sound the alarm. +When M'Kain's on the Bridge was broken, the Deacon found the false keys; +it was Smith who carried off such poor booty as was found. And though +the master suggested the attack upon Bruce's shop, knowing full well +the simplicity of the lock, he lingered at the Vintner's over a game of +hazard, and let the man pouch a sumptuous booty. + +Even the onslaught upon the Excise Office, which cost his life, was +contrived with appalling clumsiness. The Deacon of the Wrights' Guild, +who could slash wood at his will, who knew the artifice of every lock +in the city, let his men go to work with no better implements than the +stolen coulter of a plough and a pair of spurs. And when they tackled +the ill omened job, Brodie was of those who brought failure upon it. +Long had they watched the door of the Excise; long had they studied the +habits of its clerks; so that they went to work in no vain spirit of +experiment. Nor on the fatal night did they force an entrance until they +had dogged the porter to his home. Smith and Brown ransacked the place +for money, while Brodie and Andrew Ainslie remained without to give a +necessary warning. Whereupon Ainslie was seized with fright, and Brodie, +losing his head, called off the others, so that six hundred pounds +were left, that might have been an easy prey. Smith, indignant at the +collapse of the long-pondered design, laid the blame upon his master, +and they swung, as Brodie's grim spirit of farce suggested, for four +pounds apiece. + +The humours of the situation were all the Deacon's own. He dressed the +part in black; his respectability grinned behind a vizard; and all the +while he trifled nonchalantly with a pistol. Breaking the silence with +snatches from The Beggar's Opera, he promised that all their lead should +turn to gold, christened the coulter and the crow the Great and Little +Samuel, and then went off to drink and dice at the Vintner's. How could +anger prevail against this undying gaiety? And if Smith were peevish at +failure, he was presently reconciled, and prepared once more to die for +his Deacon. + +Even after escape, the amateur is still apparent. True, he managed the +trip to Flushing with his ancient extravagance; true, he employed all +the juggleries of the law to prevent his surrender at Amsterdam. But +he knew not the caution of the born criminal, and he was run to earth, +because he would still write to his friends like a gentleman. His +letters, during this nightmare of disaster, are perfect in their +carelessness and good-fellowship. In this he demands news of his +children, as becomes a father and a citizen, and furnishes a schedule of +their education; in that he is curious concerning the issue of a main, +and would know whether his black cock came off triumphant. Nor, even in +flight, did he forget his proper craft, but would have his tools sent to +Charleston, that in America he might resume the trade that had made him +Deacon. + +But his was the art of conduct, not of guile, and he deserved capture +for his rare indifference. Why, then, with no natural impulsion, did he +risk the gallows? Why, being no born thief, and innocent of the thief's +cunning, did he associate with so clever a scoundrel as George Smith, +with cowards craven as Brown and Ainslie? The greed of gold, doubtless, +half persuaded him, but gold was otherwise attainable, and the motive +was assuredly far more subtle. Brodie, in fact, was of a romantic +turn. He was, so to say, a glorified schoolboy, surfeited with penny +dreadfuls. He loved above all things to patter the flash, to dream +himself another Macheath, to trick himself out with all the trappings +of a crime he was unfit to commit. It was never the job itself that +attracted him: he would always rather throw the dice than force a +neighbour's window. But he must needs have a distraction from the +respectability of his life. Everybody was at his feet; he was Deacon +of his Guild, at an age whereat his fellows were striving to earn a +reputable living; his masterpieces were fashioned, and the wrights' +trade was already a burden. To go upon the cross seemed a dream of +freedom, until he snapped his fingers at the world, filled his mouth +with slang, prepared his alibi, and furnished him a whole wardrobe of +disguises. + +With a conscious irony, maybe, he buried his pistols beneath the +domestic hearth, jammed his dark lantern into the press, where he kept +his game-cocks, and determined to make an inextricable jumble of his +career. Drink is sometimes a sufficient reaction against the orderliness +of a successful life. + +But drink and cards failed with the Deacon, and at the Vintner's of his +frequentation he encountered accomplices proper for his schemes. Never +was so outrageous a protest offered against domesticity. Yet Brodie's +resolution was romantic after its fashion, and was far more respectable +than the blackguardism of the French Revolution, which distracted +housewifely discontent a year after the Deacon swung. Moreover, it gave +occasion for his dandyism and his love of display. If in one incarnation +he was the complete gentleman, in another he dressed the part of the +perfect scoundrel, and the list of his costumes would have filled one of +his own ledgers. + +But, when once the possibility of housebreaking was taken from him, he +returned to his familiar dignity. Being questioned by the Procurator +Fiscal, he shrugged his shoulders, regretting that other affairs +demanded his attention. As who should say: it is unpardonable to disturb +the meditations of a gentleman. He made a will bequeathing his knowledge +of law to the magistrates of Edinburgh, his dexterity in cards and dice +to Hamilton the chimney-sweeper, and all his bad qualities to his good +friends and old companions, Brown and Ainslie, not doubting, however, +that their own will secure them 'a rope at last.' In prison it was his +worst complaint that, though the nails of his toes and fingers were not +quite so long as Nebuchadnezzar's, they were long enough for a +mandarin, and much longer than he found convenient. Thus he preserved an +untroubled demeanour until the day of his death. Always polite, and +even joyous, he met the smallest indulgence with enthusiasm. When Smith +complained that a respite of six weeks was of small account, Brodie +exclaimed, 'George, what would you and I give for six weeks longer? Six +weeks would be an age to us.' + +The day of execution was the day of his supreme triumph. As some men +are artists in their lives, so the Deacon was an artist in his death. +Nothing became him so well as his manner of leaving the world. There is +never a blot upon this exquisite performance. It is superb, impeccable! +Again his dandyism supported him, and he played the part of a dying man +in a full suit of black, his hair, as always, dressed and powdered. +The day before he had been jovial and sparkling. He had chanted all his +flash songs, and cracked the jokes of a man of fashion. But he set out +for the gallows with a firm step and a rigorous demeanour. He offered +a prayer of his own composing, and 'O Lord,' he said, 'I lament that +I know so little of Thee.' The patronage and the confession are alike +characteristic. As he drew near the scaffold, the model of which he had +given to his native city a few years since, he stepped with an agile +briskness; he examined the halter, destined for his neck, with an +impartial curiosity. + +His last pleasantry was uttered as he ascended the table. 'George,' he +muttered, 'you are first in hand,' and thereafter he took farewell +of his friends. Only one word of petulance escaped his lips: when the +halters were found too short, his contempt for slovenly workmanship +urged him to protest, and to demand a punishment for the executioner. +Again ascending the table, he assured himself against further mishap +by arranging the rope with his own hands. Thus he was turned off in +a brilliant assembly. The Provost and Magistrates, in respect for his +dandyism, were resplendent in their robes of office, and though the +crowd of spectators rivalled that which paid a tardy honour to Jonathan +Wild, no one was hurt save the customary policeman. Such was the +dignified end of a 'double life.' And the duplicity is the stranger, +because the real Deacon was not Brodie the Cracksman, but Brodie the +Gentleman. So lightly did he esteem life that he tossed it from him in +a careless impulse. So little did he fear death that, 'What is hanging?' +he asked. 'A leap in the dark.' + + + + +II--CHARLES PEACE + + +CHARLES PEACE, after the habit of his kind, was born of scrupulously +honest parents. The son of a religious file-maker, he owed to his father +not only his singular piety but his love of edged tools. As he never +encountered an iron bar whose scission baffled him, so there never was +a fire-eating Methodist to whose ministrations he would not turn a +repentant ear. After a handy portico and a rich booty he loved nothing +so well as a soul-stirring discourse. Not even his precious fiddle +occupied a larger space in his heart than that devotion which the +ignorant have termed hypocrisy. Wherefore his career was no less +suitable to his ambition than his inglorious end. For he lived the king +of housebreakers, and he died a warning to all evildoers, with a prayer +of intercession trembling upon his lips. + +The hero's boyhood is wrapped in obscurity. It is certain that no +glittering precocity brought disappointment to his maturer years, and he +was already nineteen when he achieved his first imprisonment. Even then +'twas a sorry offence, which merited no more than a month, so that he +returned to freedom and his fiddle with his character unbesmirched. +Serious as ever in pious exercises, he gained a scanty living as +strolling musician. There was never a tavern in Sheffield where the +twang of his violin was unheard, and the skill wherewith he extorted +music from a single string earned him the style and title of the modern +Paganini. But such an employ was too mean for his pride, and he soon +got to work again--this time with a better success. The mansions +of Sheffield were his early prey, and a rich plunder rewarded his +intrepidity. The design was as masterly as its accomplishment. The grand +style is already discernible. The houses were broken in quietude and +good order. None saw the opened window; none heard the step upon the +stair; in truth, the victim's loss was his first intelligence. + +But when the booty was in the robber's own safe keeping, the empiricism +of his method was revealed. As yet he knew no secret and efficient fence +to shield him from detection; as yet he had not learnt that the complete +burglar works alone. This time he knew two accomplices--women both, and +one his own sister! A paltry pair of boots was the clue of discovery, +and a goodly stretch was the proper reward of a clumsy indiscretion. So +for twenty years he wavered between the crowbar and the prison house, +now perfecting a brilliant scheme, now captured through recklessness or +drink. Once when a mistake at Manchester sent him to the Hulks, he owned +his failure was the fruit of brandy, and after his wont delivered (from +the dock) a little homily upon the benefit of sobriety. + +Meanwhile his art was growing to perfection. He had at last discovered +that a burglary demands as diligent a forethought as a campaign; he had +learnt that no great work is achieved by a multitude of minds. Before +his boat carried off a goodly parcel of silk from Nottingham, he was +known to the neighbourhood as an enthusiastic and skilful angler. One +day he dangled his line, the next he sat peacefully at the same employ; +and none suspected that the mild mannered fisherman had under the +cloud of night despatched a costly parcel to London. Even the years of +imprisonment were not ill-spent. Peace was still preparing the great +achievement of his life, and he framed from solitary reflection as well +as from his colleagues in crime many an ingenious theory afterwards +fearlessly translated into practice. And when at last he escaped the +slavery of the gaol, picture-framing was the pursuit which covered +the sterner business of his life. His depredation involved him in no +suspicion; his changing features rendered recognition impossible. When +the exercise of his trade compelled him to shoot a policeman at Whalley +Range, another was sentenced for the crime; and had he not encountered +Mrs. Dyson, who knows but he might have practised his art in prosperous +obscurity until claimed by a coward's death? But a stormy love-passage +with Mrs. Dyson led to the unworthy killing of the woman's husband--a +crime unnecessary and in no sense consonant to the burglar's craft; and +Charles Peace was an outlaw, with a reward set upon his head. + +And now came a period of true splendour. Like Fielding, like Cervantes, +like Sterne, Peace reserved his veritable masterpiece for the certainty +of middle-life. His last two years were nothing less than a march of +triumph. If you remember his constant danger, you will realise the +grandeur of the scheme. From the moment that Peace left Bannercross with +Dyson's blood upon his hands, he was a hunted man. His capture was worth +five hundred pounds; his features were familiar to a hundred hungry +detectives. Had he been less than a man of genius, he might have taken +an unavailing refuge in flight or concealment. But, content with no +safety unattended by affluence, he devised a surer plan: he became a +householder. Now, a semi-detached villa is an impregnable stronghold. +Respectability oozes from the dusky mortar of its bricks, and escapes in +clouds of smoke from its soot-grimed chimneys. No policeman ever detects +a desperate ruffian in a demure black-coated gentleman who day after day +turns an iron gate upon its rusty hinge. And thus, wrapt in a cloak +of suburban piety, Peace waged a pitiless and effective war upon his +neighbours. + +He pillaged Blackheath, Greenwich, Peckham, and many another home of +honest worth, with a noiselessness and a precision that were the envy of +the whole family. The unknown and intrepid burglar was a terror to all +the clerkdom of the City, and though he was as secret and secluded as +Peace, the two heroes were never identified. At the time of his true +eminence he 'resided' in Evelina Road, Peckham, and none was more +sensible than he how well the address became his provincial refinement. +There he installed himself with his wife and Mrs. Thompson. His +drawing-room suite was the envy of the neighbourhood; his pony-trap +proclaimed him a man of substance; his gentle manners won the respect of +all Peckham. Hither he would invite his friends to such entertainments +as the suburb expected. His musical evenings were recorded in the local +paper, while on Sundays he chanted the songs of Zion with a zeal which +Clapham herself might envy. + +The house in Evelina Road was no mere haunt of quiet gentility. It +was chosen with admirable forethought and with a stern eye upon the +necessities of business. Beyond the garden wall frowned a railway +embankment, which enabled the cracksman to escape from his house without +opening the front door. By the same embankment he might, if he chose, +convey the trophies of the night's work; and what mattered it if the +windows rattled to the passing train? + +At least a cloud of suspicion was dispelled. Here he lived for two +years, with naught to disturb his tranquillity save Mrs. Thompson's +taste for drink. The hours of darkness were spent in laborious activity, +the open day brought its own distractions. There was always Bow Street +wherein to loaf, and the study of the criminal law lost none of its +excitement from the reward offered outside for the bald-headed fanatic +who sat placidly within. And the love of music was Peace's constant +solace. Whatever treasures he might discard in a hurried flight, he +never left a fiddle behind, and so vast became his pilfered collection +that he had to borrow an empty room in a friend's house for its better +disposal. + +Moreover, he had a fervent pride in his craft; and you might deduce from +his performance the whole theory and practice of burglary. He worked +ever without accomplices. He knew neither the professional thief nor his +lingo; and no association with gaol-birds involved him in the risk of +treachery and betrayal. His single colleague was a friendly fence, and +not even at the gallows' foot would he surrender the fence's name. His +master quality was a constructive imagination. Accident never marred his +design. He would visit the house of his breaking until he understood +its ground-plan, and was familiar with its inhabitants. This demanded an +amazing circumspection, but Peace was as stealthy as a cat, and he would +keep silent vigil for hours rather than fail from an over keen anxiety. +Having marked the place of his entry, and having chosen an appropriate +hour, he would prevent the egress of his enemies by screwing up the +doors. + +He then secured the room wherein he worked, and the job finished, he +slung himself into the night by the window, so that, ere an alarm could +be raised, his pony-trap had carried the booty to Evelina Road. + +Such was the outline of his plan; but, being no pedant, he varied it +at will: nor was he likely to court defeat through lack of resource. +Accomplished as he was in his proper business, he was equally alert to +meet the accompanying risks. He had brought the art of cozening strange +dogs to perfection; and for the exigence of escape, his physical +equipment was complete. He would resist capture with unparalleled +determination, and though he shuddered at the shedding of blood, he +never hesitated when necessity bade him pull the trigger. Moreover, +there was no space into which he would not squeeze his body, and the +iron bars were not yet devised through which he could not make an exit. +Once--it was at Nottingham--he was surprised by an inquisitive detective +who demanded his name and trade. 'I am a hawker of spectacles,' replied +Peace, 'and my licence is downstairs. Wait two minutes and I'll show it +you.' The detective never saw him again. Six inches only separated the +bars of the window, but Peace asked no more, and thus silently he +won his freedom. True, his most daring feat--the leap from the +train--resulted not in liberty, but in a broken head. But he essayed +a task too high even for his endeavour, and, despite his manacles, at +least he left his boot in the astonished warder's grip. + +No less remarkable than his skill and daring were his means of evasion. +Even without a formal disguise he could elude pursuit. At an instant's +warning, his loose, plastic features would assume another shape; out +shot his lower jaw, and, as if by magic, the blood flew into his face +until you might take him for a mulatto. Or, if he chose, he would +strap his arm to his side, and let the police be baffled by a wooden +mechanism, decently finished with a hook. Thus he roamed London up and +down unsuspected, and even after his last failure at Blackheath, none +would have discovered Charles Peace in John Ward, the Single-Handed +Burglar, had not woman's treachery prompted detection. Indeed, he was an +epitome of his craft, the Complete Burglar made manifest. + +Not only did he plan his victories with previous ingenuity, but he +sacrificed to his success both taste and sentiment. His dress was always +of the most sombre; his only wear was the decent black of everyday +godliness. The least spice of dandyism might have distinguished him +from his fellows, and Peace's whole vanity lay in his craft. Nor did the +paltry sentiment of friendship deter him from his just course. When +the panic aroused by the silent burglar was uncontrolled, a neighbour +consulted Peace concerning the safety of his house. The robber, +having duly noted the villa's imperfections, and having discovered the +hiding-place of jewellery and plate, complacently rifled it the next +night. Though his self-esteem sustained a shock, though henceforth his +friend thought meanly of his judgment, he was rewarded with the solid +pudding of plunder, and the world whispered of the mysterious marauder +with a yet colder horror. In truth, the large simplicity and solitude of +his style sets him among the Classics, and though others have surpassed +him at single points of the game, he practised the art with such +universal breadth and courage as were then a revolution, and are still +unsurpassed. + +But the burglar ever fights an unequal battle. One false step, and +defeat o'erwhelms him. For two years had John Ward intimidated the +middle-class seclusion of South London; for two years had he hidden from +a curious world the ugly, furrowed visage of Charles Peace. The bald +head, the broad-rimmed spectacles, the squat, thick figure--he stood +but five feet four in his stockings, and adds yet another to the list +of little-great men--should have ensured detection, but the quick change +and the persuasive gesture were omnipotent, and until the autumn of 1878 +Peace was comfortably at large. And then an encounter at Blackheath put +him within the clutch of justice. His revolver failed in its duty, +and, valiant as he was, at last he met his match. In prison he was +alternately insolent and aggrieved. He blustered for justice, proclaimed +himself the victim of sudden temptation, and insisted that his intention +had been ever innocent. + +But, none the less, he was sentenced to a lifer, and, the mask of John +Ward being torn from him, he was sent to Sheffield to stand his trial as +Charles Peace. The leap from the train is already recorded; and at his +last appearance in the dock he rolled upon the floor, a petulant and +broken man. When once the last doom was pronounced, he forgot both +fiddle and crowbar; he surrendered himself to those exercises of piety +from which he had never wavered. The foolish have denounced him for a +hypocrite, not knowing that the artist may have a life apart from his +art, and that to Peace religion was an essential pursuit. So he died, +having released from an unjust sentence the poor wretch who at Whalley +Range had suffered for his crime, and offering up a consolatory prayer +for all mankind. In truth, there was no enemy for whom he did not +intercede. He prayed for his gaolers, for his executioner, for the +Ordinary, for his wife, for Mrs. Thompson, his drunken doxy, and he went +to his death with the sure step of one who, having done his duty, is +reconciled with the world. The mob testified its affectionate admiration +by dubbing him 'Charley,' and remembered with effusion his last grim +pleasantry. 'What is the scaffold?' he asked with sublime earnestness. +And the answer came quick and sanctimonious: 'A short cut to Heaven!' + + + + +III--A PARALLEL + +(DEACON BRODIE AND CHARLES PEACE) + + +NOT a parallel, but a contrast, since at all points Peace is Brodie's +antithesis. The one is the austerest of Classics, caring only for the +ultimate perfection of his work. The other is the gayest of Romantics, +happiest when by the way he produces a glittering effect, or dazzles the +ear by a vain impertinence. Now, it is by thievery that Peace reached +magnificence. A natural aptitude drove him from the fiddle to the +centre-bit. He did but rob, because genius followed the impulse. He +had studied the remotest details of his business; he was sternly +professional in the conduct of his life, and, as became an old +gaol-bird, there was no antic of the policeman wherewith he was not +familiar. Moreover, not only had he reduced house-breaking to a science, +but, being ostensibly nothing better than a picture-frame maker, he had +invented an incomparable set of tools wherewith to enter and evade +his neighbour's house. Brodie, on the other hand, was a thief for +distraction. His method was as slovenly as ignorance could make it. +Though by trade a wright, and therefore a master of all the arts of +joinery, he was so deficient in seriousness that he stole a coulter +wherewith to batter the walls of the Excise Office. While Peace fought +the battle in solitude, Brodie was not only attended by a gang, but +listened to the command of his subordinates, and was never permitted to +perform a more intricate duty than the sounding of the alarm. And yet +here is the ironical contrast. Peace, the professional thief, despised +his brothers, and was never heard to patter a word of flash. Brodie, +the amateur, courted the society of all cross coves, and would rather +express himself in Pedlar's French than in his choicest Scots. While the +Englishman scraped Tate and Brady from a one-stringed fiddle, the Scot +limped a chaunt from The Beggar's Opera, and thought himself a devil +of a fellow. The one was a man about town masquerading as a thief; the +other the most serious among housebreakers, singing psalms in all good +faith. + +But if Peace was incomparably the better craftsman, Brodie was the +prettier gentleman. Peace would not have permitted Brodie to drive his +pony-trap the length of Evelina Road. But Brodie, in revenge, would +have cut Peace had he met him in the Corn-market. The one was a sombre +savage, the other a jovial comrade, and it was a witty freak of fortune +that impelled both to follow the same trade. And thus you arrive at +another point of difference. The Englishman had no intelligence of +life's amenity. He knew naught of costume: clothes were the limit of +his ambition. Dressed always for work, he was like the caterpillar which +assumes the green of the leaf, wherein it hides: he wore only such duds +as should attract the smallest notice, and separate him as far as might +be from his business. But the Scot was as fine a dandy as ever took +(haphazard) to the cracking of kens. If his refinement permitted +no excess of splendour, he went ever gloriously and appropriately +apparelled. He was well-mannered, cultured, with scarce a touch of +provincialism to mar his gay demeanour: whereas Peace knew little +enough outside the practice of burglary, and the proper handling of the +revolver. + +Our Charles, for example, could neither spell nor write; he dissembled +his low origin with the utmost difficulty, and at the best was plastered +over (when not at work) with the parochialism of the suburbs. So far the +contrast is complete; and even in their similarities there is an evident +difference. Each led a double life; but while Brodie was most himself +among his own kind, the real Peace was to be found not fiddle-scraping +in Evelina Road but marking down policemen in the dusky byways +of Blackheath. Brodie's grandeur was natural to him; Peace's +respectability, so far as it transcended the man's origin, was a cloak +of villainy. + +Each, again, was an inventor, and while the more innocent Brodie +designed a gallows, the more hardened Peace would have gained notoriety +by the raising of wrecks and the patronage of Mr. Plimsoll. And since +both preserved a certain courage to the end, since both died on the +scaffold as becomes a man, the contrast is once more characteristic. +Brodie's cynicism is a fine foil to the piety of Peace; and while each +end was natural after its own fashion, there is none who will deny to +the Scot the finer sense of fitness. Nor did any step in their career +explain more clearly the difference in their temperament than their +definitions of the gallows. For Peace it is 'a short cut to Heaven'; +for Brodie it is 'a leap in the dark.' Again the Scot has the advantage. +Again you reflect that, if Peace is the most accomplished Classic among +the housebreakers, the Deacon is the merriest companion who ever climbed +the gallows by the shoulders of the incomparable Macheath. + + + + +THE MAN IN THE GREY SUIT + + +THE Abbe Bruneau, who gave his shaven head in atonement for unnumbered +crimes, was a finished exponent of duplicity. In the eye of day and of +Entrammes he shone a miracle of well-doing; by night he prowled in the +secret places of Laval. The world watched him, habited in the decent +black of his calling; no sooner was he beyond sight of his parish than +his valise was opened, and he arrayed himself--under the hedge, no +doubt--in a suit of jaunty grey. The pleasures for which he sacrificed +the lives of others and his own were squalid enough, but they were the +best a provincial brain might imagine; and he sinned the sins of a hedge +priest with a courage and effrontery which his brethren may well envy. +Indeed, the Man in the Grey Suit will be sent down the ages with a +grimmer scandal, if with a staler mystery, than the Man in the Iron +Mask. + +He was born of parents who were certainly poor, and possibly honest, +at Asse-le-Berenger. He counted a dozen Chouans among his ancestry, +and brigandage swam in his blood. Even his childhood was crimson with +crimes, which the quick memory of the countryside long ago lost in the +pride of having bred a priest. He stained his first cure of souls with +the poor, sad sin of arson, which the bishop, fearful of scandal and +loth to check a promising career, condoned with a suitable advancement. +At Entrammes, his next benefice, he entered into his full inheritance of +villainy, and here it was--despite his own protest--that he devised the +grey suit which brought him ruin and immortality. To the wild, hilarious +dissipation of Laval, the nearest town, he fell an immediate and +unresisting prey. Think of the glittering lamps, the sparkling taverns, +the bright-eyed women, the manifold fascinations, which are the +character and delight of this forgotten city! Why, if the Abbe Bruneau +doled out comfort and absolution at Entrammes--why should he not enjoy +at Laval the wilder joys of the flesh? Lack of money was the only +hindrance, since our priest was not of those who could pursue bonnes +fortunes; ever he sighed for 'booze and the blowens,' but 'booze and the +blowens' he could only purchase with the sovereigns his honest calling +denied him. There was no resource but thievery and embezzlement, sins +which led sometimes to falsehood or incendiarism, and at a pinch to +the graver enterprise of murder. But Bruneau was not one to boggle at +trifles. Women he would encounter--young or old, dark or fair, ugly or +beautiful, it was all one to him--and the fools who withheld him riches +must be punished for their niggard hand. For a while a theft here and +there, a cunning extortion of money upon the promise of good works, +sufficed for his necessities, but still he hungered for a coup, and +patiently he devised and watched his opportunity. + +Meanwhile his cunning protected him, and even if the gaze of suspicion +fell upon him he contrived his orgies with so neat a discretion that the +Church, which is not wont to expose her malefactors, preserved a +timid and an innocent silence. The Abbe disappeared with a commendable +constancy, and with that just sense of secrecy which should compel even +an archiepiscopal admiration. He was not of those who would drag his +cloth through the mire. Not until the darkness he loved so fervently +covered the earth would he escape from the dull respectability of +Entrammes, nor did he ever thus escape unaccompanied by his famous +valise. The grey suit was an effectual disguise to his calling, and +so jealous was he of the Church's honour that he never--unless in his +cups--disclosed his tonsure. One of his innumerable loves confessed in +the witness-box that Bruneau always retained his hat in the glare of +the Cafe, protesting that a headache rendered him fatally susceptible +to draught; and such was his thoughtful punctilio that even in the +comparative solitude of a guilty bed-chamber he covered his shorn locks +with a nightcap. + +And while his conduct at Laval was unimpeachable, he always proved a +nice susceptibility in his return. A cab carried him within a discreet +distance of his home, whence, having exchanged the grey for the more +sober black, he would tramp on foot, and thus creep in tranquil and +unobserved. But simple as it is to enjoy, enjoyment must still be +purchased, and the Abbe was never guilty of a meanness. The less guilty +scheme was speedily staled, and then it was that the Abbe bethought him +of murder. + +His first victim was the widow Bourdais, who pursued the honest calling +of a florist at Laval. Already the curate was on those terms of intimacy +which unite the robber with the robbed; for some months earlier he had +imposed a forced loan of sixty francs upon his victim. But on the 15th +of July 1893, he left Entrammes, resolved upon a serious measure. The +black valise was in his hand, as he set forth upon the arid, windy road. +Before he reached Laval he had made the accustomed transformation, and +it was no priest, but a layman, doucely dressed in grey, that awaited +Mme. Bourdais' return from the flower-market. He entered the shop with +the coolness of a friend, and retreated to the door of the parlour when +two girls came to make a purchase. No sooner had the widow joined him +than he cut her throat, and, with the ferocity of the beast who loves +blood as well as plunder, inflicted some forty wounds upon her withered +frame. His escape was simple and dignified; he called the cabman, who +knew him well, and who knew, moreover, what was required of him; and +the priest was snugly in bed, though perhaps exhausted with blood and +pleasure, when the news of the murder followed him to his village. + +Next day the crime was common gossip, and the Abbe's friends took +counsel with him. One there was astonished that the culprit remained +undiscovered. 'But why should you marvel?' said Bruneau. 'I could kill +you and your wife at your own chimney-corner without a soul knowing. Had +I taken to evil courses instead of to good I should have been a terrible +assassin.' There is a touch of the pride which De Quincey attributes +to Williams in this boastfulness, and throughout the parallel is +irresistible. Williams, however, was the better dandy; he put on a +dress-coat and patent-leather pumps because the dignity of his work +demanded a fitting costume. And Bruneau wore the grey suit not without +a hope of disguise. Yet you like to think that the Abbe looked +complacently upon his valise, and had forethought for the cut of his +professional coat; and if he be not in the first flight of artistry, +remember his provincial upbringing, and furnish the proper excuse. + +Meanwhile the scandal of the murdered widow passed into forgetfulness, +and the Abbe was still impoverished. Already he had robbed his vicar, +and the suspicion of the Abbe Fricot led on to the final and the +detected crime. Now Fricot had noted the loss of money and of bonds, and +though he refrained from exposure he had confessed to a knowledge of +the criminal. M. Bruneau was naturally sensitive to suspicion, and he +determined upon the immediate removal of this danger to his peace. On +January 2, 1894, M. Fricot returned to supper after administering the +extreme unction to a parishioner. While the meal was preparing, he +went into his garden in sabots and bareheaded, and never again was seen +alive. The supper cooled, the vicar was still absent; the murderer, +hungry with his toil, ate not only his own, but his victim's share of +the food, grimly hinting that Fricot would not come back. Suicide was +dreamed of, murder hinted; up and down the village was the search made, +and none was more zealous than the distressed curate. + +At last a peasant discovered some blocks of wood in the well, and before +long blood-stains revealed themselves on the masonry. Speedily was the +body recovered, disfigured and battered beyond recognition, and the +voice of the village went up in denunciation of the Abbe Bruneau. +Immunity had made the culprit callous, and in a few hours suspicion +became certainty. A bleeding nose was the lame explanation given for +the stains which were on his clothes, on the table, on the keys of +his harmonium. A quaint and characteristic folly was it that drove the +murderer straight to the solace of his religion. You picture him, hot +and red-handed from murder, soothing his battered conscience with some +devilish Requiem for the unshrived soul he had just parted from its +broken body, and leaving upon the harmonium the ineradicable traces of +his guilt. Thus he lived, poised between murder and the Church, spending +upon the vulgar dissipation of a Breton village the blood and money of +his foolish victims. But for him 'les tavernes et les filles' of Laval +meant a veritable paradise, and his sojourn in the country is proof +enough of a limited cunning. Had he been more richly endowed, Paris had +been the theatre of his crimes. As it is, he goes down to posterity as +the Man in the Grey Suit, and the best friend the cabmen of Laval ever +knew. Them, indeed, he left inconsolable. + + + + +MONSIEUR L'ABBE + + +The childhood of the Abbe Rosselot is as secret as his origin, and no +man may know whether Belfort or Bavaria smiled upon his innocence. A +like mystery enshrouds his early manhood, and the malice of his foes, +who are legion, denounces him for a Jesuit of Innsbruck. But since he +has lived within the eye of the world his villainies have been revealed +as clearly as his attainments, and history provides him no other rival +in the corruption of youth than the infamous Thwackum. + +It is not every scholar's ambition to teach the elements, and Rosselot +adopted his modest calling as a cloak of crime. No sooner was he +installed in a mansion than he became the mansion's master, and +henceforth he ruled his employer's domain with the tyrannical severity +of a Grand Inquisitor. His soul wrapped in the triple brass of +arrogance, he even dared to lay his hands upon food before his betters +were served; and presently, emboldened by success, he would order the +dinners, reproach the cook with a too lavish use of condiments, and +descend with insolent expostulation into the kitchen. In a week he had +opened the cupboards upon a dozen skeletons, and made them rattle their +rickety bones up and down the draughty staircases, until the inmates +shivered with horror and the terrified neighbours fled the haunted +castle as a lazar-house. Once in possession of a family secret, he felt +himself secure, and henceforth he was free to browbeat his employer and +to flog his pupil to the satisfaction of his waspish nature. Moreover, +he was endowed with all the insight and effrontery of a trained +journalist. So sedulous was he in his search after the truth, that +neither man nor woman could deny him confidence. And, as vinegar flowed +in his veins for blood, it was his merry sport to set wife against +husband and children against father. Not even were the servants +safe from his watchful inquiry, and housemaids and governesses alike +entrusted their hopes and fears to his malicious keeping. And when the +house had retired to rest, with what a sinister delight did he chuckle +over the frailties and infamies, a guilty knowledge of which he had +dragged from many an unwilling sinner! To oust him, when installed, was +a plain impossibility, for this wringer of hearts was only too glib +in the surrender of another's scandal; and as he accepted the last +scurrility with Christian resignation, his unfortunate employer could +but strengthen his vocabulary and patiently endure the presence of this +smiling, demoniacal tutor. + +But a too villainous curiosity was not the Abbe's capital sin. + +Not only did he entertain his leisure with wrecking the happiness of a +united family, but he was an enemy open and declared of France. It +was his amiable pastime at the dinner-table, when he had first helped +himself to such delicacies as tempted his dainty palate, to pronounce +a pompous eulogy upon the German Emperor. France, he would say with an +exultant smile, is a pays pourri, which exists merely to be the football +of Prussia. She has but one hope of salvation--still the monster +speaks--and that is to fall into the benign occupation of a vigorous +race. Once upon a time--the infamy is scarce credible--he was conducting +his young charges past a town-hall, over the lintel of whose door +glittered those proud initials 'R. F.' 'What do they stand for?' asked +this demon Barlow. And when the patriotic Tommy hesitated for an answer, +the preceptor exclaimed with ineffable contempt, 'Race de fous'! It is +no wonder, then, that this foe of his fatherland feared to receive a +letter openly addressed; rather he would slink out under cover of night +and seek his correspondence at the poste restante, like a guilty lover +or a British tourist. + +The Chateau de Presles was built for his reception. It was haunted by a +secret, which none dare murmur in the remotest garret. There was no more +than a whisper of murder in the air, but the Marquis shuddered when his +wife's eye frowned upon him. True, the miserable Menaldo had disappeared +from his seminary ten years since, but threats of disclosure were +uttered continually, and respectability might only be purchased by a +profound silence. Here was the Abbe's most splendid opportunity, and he +seized it with all the eagerness of a greedy temperament. The Marquise, +a wealthy peasant, who was rather at home on the wild hill-side than in +her stately castle, became an instant prey to his devilish intrigue. +The governess, an antic old maid of fifty-seven, whose conversation was +designed to bring a blush to the cheek of the most hardened dragoon, +was immediately on terms of so frank an intimacy that she flung bread +pellets at him across the table, and joyously proposed, if we may +believe the priest on his oath, to set up housekeeping with him, that +they might save expense. Two high-spirited boys were always at hand to +encourage his taste for flogging, and had it not been for the Marquis, +the Abbe's cup would have been full to overflowing. But the Marquis +loved not the lean, ogling instructor of his sons, and presently began +to assail him with all the abuse of which he was master. He charged the +Abbe with unspeakable villainy; salop and saligaud were the terms in +which he would habitually refer to him. He knew the rascal for a spy, +and no modesty restrained him from proclaiming his knowledge. But +whatever insults were thrown at the Abbe he received with a grin +complacent as Shylock's, for was he not conscious that when he liked the +pound of flesh was his own! + +With a fiend's duplicity he laid his plans of ruin and death. The +Marquise, swayed to his will, received him secretly in the blue room +(whose very colour suggests a guilty intrigue), though never, upon +the oath of an Abbe, when the key was turned in the lock. A journey to +Switzerland had freed him from the haunting suspicion of the Marquis, +and at last he might compel the wife to denounce her husband as +a murderer. The terrified woman drew the indictment at the Abbe's +dictation, and when her husband returned to St. Amand he was instantly +thrust into prison. Nothing remained but to cajole the sons into an +expressed hatred of their father, and the last enormity was committed by +a masterpiece of cunning. 'Your father's one chance of escape,' argued +this villain in a cassock, 'is to be proved an inhuman ruffian. +Swear that he beat you unmercifully and you will save him from the +guillotine.' All the dupes learned their lesson with a certainty which +reflects infinite credit upon the Abbe's method of instruction. + +For once in his life the Abbe had been moved by greed as well as by +villainy. His early exploits had no worse motive than the satisfaction +of an inhuman lust for cruelty and destruction. But the Marquise was +rich, and when once her husband's head were off, might not the Abbe reap +his share of the gathered harvest? The stakes were high, but the game +was worth the playing, and Rosselot played it with spirit and energy +unto the last card. His appearance in court is ever memorable, and as +his ferret eyes glinted through glass at the President, he seemed the +villain of some Middle Age Romance. His head, poised upon a lean, bony +frame, was embellished with a nose thin and sharp as the blade of a +knife; his tightly compressed lips were an indication of the rascal's +determination. 'Long as a day in Lent'--that is how a spectator +described him; and if ever a sinister nature glared through a sinister +figure, the Abbe's character was revealed before he parted his lips in +speech. Unmoved he stood and immovable; he treated the imprecations of +the Marquis with a cold disdain; as the burden of proof grew heavy on +his back, he shrugged his shoulders in weary indifference. He told his +monstrous story with a cynical contempt, which has scarce its equal in +the history of crime; and priest, as he was, he proved that he did +not yield to the Marquis himself in the Rabelaisian amplitude of his +vocabulary. He brought charges against the weird world of Presles with +an insouciance and brutality which defeated their own aim. He described +the vices of his master and the sins of the servants in a slang which +would sit more gracefully upon an idle roysterer than upon a pious Abbe. +And, his story ended, he leered at the Court with the satisfaction of +one who had discharged a fearsome duty. + +But his rascality overshot its mark; the Marquise, obedient to his +priestly casuistry, displayed too fierce a zeal in the execution of his +commands. And he took to flight, hoping to lose in the larger world of +Paris the notoriety which his prowess won him among the poor despised +Berrichons. He left behind for our consolation a snatch of philosophy +which helps to explain his last and greatest achievement. 'Those who +have money exist only to be fleeced.' Thus he spake with a reckless +revelation of self. Yet the mystery of his being is still unpierced. He +is traitor, schemer, spy; but is he an Abbe? Perhaps not. At any rate, +he once attended the 'Messe des Morts,' and was heard to mumble a +'Credo,' which, as every good Catholic remembers, has no place in that +solemn service. + + +***** + + +Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty at the Edinburgh +University Press + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Book of Scoundrels, by Charles Whibley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF SCOUNDRELS *** + +***** This file should be named 1632.txt or 1632.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/3/1632/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer and David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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