e a soldier.

"'Then, one, two, dree, and shutt!' cries Squire Maunder, standing up in
the irons of his stirrups.

"Thereupon they all blazed out, and the noise of it went all round the
hills; with a girt thick cloud arising, and all the air smelling of
powder. Before the cloud was gone so much as ten yards on the wind,
the gentleman on the cue-bald horse shuts up his face like a pair of
nut-cracks, as wide as it was long before, and out he pulls two girt
pistols longside of zaddle, and clap'th one to Squire Maunder's head,
and tother to Sir Richard Blewitt's.

"'Hand forth your money and all your warrants,' he saith like a clap of
thunder; 'gentlemen, have you now the wit to apprehend Tom Faggus?'

[Illustration: 339.jpg Hand forth your money]

"Squire Maunder swore so that he ought to be fined; but he pulled out
his purse none the slower for that, and so did Sir Richard Blewitt.

"'First man I see go to load a gun, I'll gi'e 'un the bullet to do it
with,' said Tom; for you see it was him and no other, looking quietly
round upon all of them. Then he robbed all the rest of their warships,
as pleasant as might be; and he saith, 'Now, gentlemen, do your duty:
serve your warrants afore you imprison me'; with that he made them give
up all the warrants, and he stuck them in the band of his hat, and then
he made a bow with it.

"'Good morning to your warships now, and a merry Christmas all of
you! And the merrier both for rich and poor, when gentlemen see their
almsgiving. Lest you deny yourselves the pleasure, I will aid your
warships. And to save you the trouble of following me, when your guns be
loaded--this is my strawberry mare, gentlemen, only with a little cream
on her. Gentlemen all, in the name of the King, I thank you.'

"All this while he was casting their money among the poor folk by the
handful; and then he spak kaindly to the red mare, and wor over the back
of the hill in two zeconds, and best part of two maile away, I reckon,
afore ever a gun wor loaded."*

* The truth of this story is well established by first-rate tradition.

[Illustration: 341.jpg Tailpiece]

CHAPTER XL

TWO FOOLS TOGETHER

[Illustration: 342.jpg Illustrated Capital]

That story of John Fry's, instead of causing any amusement, gave us
great disquietude; not only because it showed that Tom Faggus could not
resist sudden temptation and the delight of wildness, but also that we
greatly feared lest the King's pardon might