nd upon turning about saw it was that of Sir W---- B----,
himself on the box, two ladies of pleasure in the coach, and his
servants a great way behind. One of them seized the horse on one side,
and another on the other, but Sir W---- drove so very hard that the pull
of the horses brought them both to the ground, and he at the same time
encouraging them with his voice and the smack of his whip. So he drove
safe off without any hurt, though they fired two pistols after him.

About three weeks after this they were passing down Drury Lane, and
observing a gentleman going with one of the fine ladies of the Hundreds
into a tavern thereabouts, one of the gang who knew him, and that he had
married a lady with a great fortune to whom his father was guardian, and
that they lived altogether in a great house near Lincoln's Inn Fields,
immediately thought on a project. They slipped into an alehouse, where
he wrote an epistle to the old gentleman, informing him that they had a
warrant to apprehend a lewd woman who was with child by his son, but
that she had made her escape, and was now actually with him at a certain
tavern in Drury Lane, wherefore being apprehensive of disturbance, and
being unwilling to disgrace his family, rather than take rougher
methods, they had informed him, in order that by his interposition the
affair might be made up.

As soon as they had written this letter, they dispatched one of their
number to carry it and deliver it, as if by mistake, to the young
gentleman's wife. This had the desired effect, for in less than half an
hour came the father, the wife, and another of her trustees, who
happened to be paying a visit there when the letter came. They no sooner
entered the tavern but hearing the voice of the gentleman they asked
for, without ceremony they opened the door, and finding a woman there,
all was believed, and there followed a mighty uproar. Two of the rogues
who were best dressed, had slipped into the next room and called for
half a pint. As if by accident they came out at the noise, and under
pretence of enquiring the occasion, took the opportunity of picking the
gentleman's pockets of twenty-five guineas, one gold watch, and two
silver snuff-boxes, which it is to be presumed were never missed until
the hurry of the affair was over.

The last robbery Sperry committed was upon one Thomas Golding, not far
from Bromley, who not having any money about him, Sperry endeavoured to
make it up by taking al