at event these hopes were attended.

Numerous were the precautions exercised by the gang of thieves with whom
I now resided, to elude the vigilance of the satellites of justice. It
was one of their rules to commit no depredations but at a considerable
distance from the place of their residence; and Gines had transgressed
this regulation in the attack to which I was indebted for my present
asylum. After having possessed themselves of any booty, they took care,
in the sight of the persons whom they had robbed, to pursue a route as
nearly as possible opposite to that which led to their true haunts. The
appearance of their place of residence, together with its environs, was
peculiarly desolate avid forlorn, and it had the reputation of being
haunted. The old woman I have described had long been its inhabitant,
and was commonly supposed to be its only inhabitant; and her person well
accorded with the rural ideas of a witch. Her lodgers never went out or
came in but with the utmost circumspection, and generally by night. The
lights which were occasionally seen from various parts of her
habitation, were, by the country people, regarded with horror as
supernatural; and if the noise of revelry at any time saluted their
ears, it was imagined to proceed from a carnival of devils. With all
these advantages, the thieves did not venture to reside here but by
intervals: they frequently absented themselves for months, and removed
to a different part of the country. The old woman sometimes attended
them in these transportations, and sometimes remained; but in all cases
her decampment took place either sooner or later than theirs, so that
the nicest observer could scarcely have traced any connection between
her reappearance, and the alarms of depredation that were frequently
given; and the festival of demons seemed, to the terrified rustics,
indifferently to take place whether she were present or absent.

CHAPTER III.

One day, while I continued in this situation, a circumstance occurred
which involuntarily attracted my attention. Two of our people had been
sent to a town at some distance, for the purpose of procuring us the
things of which we were in want. After having delivered these to our
landlady, they retired to one corner of the room; and, one of them
pulling a printed paper from his pocket, they mutually occupied
themselves in examining its contents. I was sitting in an easy chair by
the fire, being considerably better