'Go!' said the other; 'go! The knave--the rascal; let him go, indeed!
Not so, he shall go before the Lord Mayor. Bring him along.'

'Oh, let me go,' said the other: 'let me go; this is the first offence, I
assure ye--the first time I ever thought to do anything wrong.'

'Hold your tongue,' said I, 'or I shall be angry with you. If I am not
very much mistaken, you once attempted to cheat me.'

'I never saw you before in all my life,' said the fellow, though his
countenance seemed to belie his words.

'That is not true,' said I; 'you are the man who attempted to cheat me of
one-and-ninepence in the coach-yard, on the first morning of my arrival
in London.'

'I don't doubt it,' said the other; 'a confirmed thief'; and here his
tones became peculiarly sharp; 'I would fain see him hanged--crucified.
Drag him along.'

'I am no constable,' said I; 'you have got your pocket-book,--I would
rather you would bid me let him go.'

'Bid you let him go!' said the other almost furiously, 'I command--stay,
what was I going to say? I was forgetting myself,' he observed more
gently; 'but he stole my pocket-book;--if you did but know what it
contained.'

'Well,' said I, 'if it contains anything valuable, be the more thankful
that you have recovered it; as for the man, I will help you to take him
where you please; but I wish you would let him go.'

The stranger hesitated, and there was an extraordinary play of emotion in
his features: he looked ferociously at the pickpocket, and, more than
once, somewhat suspiciously at myself; at last his countenance cleared,
and, with a good grace, he said, 'Well, you have done me a great service,
and you have my consent to let him go; but the rascal shall not escape
with impunity,' he exclaimed suddenly, as I let the man go, and starting
forward, before the fellow could escape, he struck him a violent blow on
the face. The man staggered, and had nearly fallen; recovering himself,
however, he said, 'I tell you what, my fellow; if I ever meet you in this
street in a dark night, and I have a knife about me, it shall be the
worse for you; as for you, young man,' said he to me; but, observing that
the other was making towards him, he left whatever he was about to say
unfinished, and, taking to his heels, was out of sight in a moment.

The stranger and myself walked in the direction of Cheapside, the way in
which he had been originally proceeding; he was silent for a few moments,
at length he