d Tilt too over the cart; and thinks I, in a
Gruesome manner, "The first time you rode on straw under a Tilt, Jack,
you were going to school, and now, 'ifegs, you are going to be Hanged."
For it was settled on all sides, and even he with the Charitable
Countenance came to be of that mind at last, that my fate was to die by
the Cord.

"Why," says one, "you've half-brained Corporal Foss with the Demijohn;
never did liquor get into a pretty man's head so soon and so deep.
They'll stretch your neck for this, my poult,--they will."

The Sergeant interposing, said that perhaps, if interest were made for
me, I might be spared an Indictment, and let to go and serve the King as
a Drummer till I was old enough to carry a firelock. But at this the
soldiers shook their heads; for Captain Poppingjay, their officer, was,
it seems, still in a towering rage at having had his fine-lady's hand so
wofully mauled by Captain Night, and vowed vengeance against the whole
crew of poachers and their whelp, as he must needs be Polite enough to
call me.

This Fine Gentleman had been provided with a Horse by the Sheriff, and,
as he rode by the cart where I and Drum and the Girl were jogging on, he
spies me under the Tilt, and in his cruel manner makes a cut at me with
his riding wand, calling me a young spawn of Thievery and Rebellion.

"You coward," I cried in a passion; "you daren't a' done that if my
hands were loose, and I hadn't this baggonet-wound in me."

"Shame to hit the boy," growled the charitable Constable, who was on
horseback too.

The Soldier-officer turned round quickly to see who had spoken; but the
Sergeant, who watched him, pointed with his halbert to the Constable,
and he returned the Captain's glance with a sturdy mien. So my Fine
Gentleman reins in his beast and lets us pass, eyeing his hand, which
was all wrapped up in Bandages, and muttering that it was well none of
his own fellows had given him this sauciness.

The day was a dreadful one. How many times our train halted to bait I
know not; but this I know, that I fainted often from Agony of my wound
and the uneasy motion of my carriage. It is a wonder that I ever came to
my journey's end alive, and in all likelihood never should, but for the
unceasing care and solicitude of the two poor women who were with me,
Prisoners like myself, but full of merciful kindness for one who was in
a sorer strait than they. By earnest pleading did Mother Drum persuade
the Head Const