urance, and as soon as he
had accomplished his purpose, he instantly started for Gravesend, where
he was detained nearly an hour by the difficulty of getting a boat.
He employed the interval to advantage however in baiting his horse. From
thence he got to Essex and Chelmsford, where he again stopped about half
an hour to refresh his horse. He then went to Braintree, Bocking,
Weathersfield, and over the Downs to Cambridge, and still pursuing the
cross roads, he went by Fenney and Stratford to Huntingdon, where he
again rested about half an hour. Proceeding now on the north road, and
at a full gallop most of the way, he arrived at York the same afternoon,
put off his boots and riding clothes, and went dressed to the
bowling-green, where, among other promenaders, happened to be the Lord
Mayor of the city. He there studied to do something particular, that his
lordship might remember him, and asking what o'clock it was, the mayor
informed him that it was a quarter past eight. Notwithstanding all these
precautions, however, he was discovered, and tried for the robbery; he
rested his defence on the fact of his being at York at such a time. The
gentleman swore positively to the time and place at which the robbery
was committed, but on the other hand, the proof was equally clear that
the prisoner was at York at the time specified. The jury acquitted him
on the supposed impossibility of his having got so great a distance from
Kent by the time he was seen in the bowling-green. Yet he was the
highwayman."

"So that he owed his safety to the speed of his horse, Uncle Thomas."

"He did so, Harry. The horse can on occasion swim about as well as most
animals, yet it never takes to the water unless urged to do so. There is
a story about a horse saving the lives of many persons who had suffered
shipwreck by being driven upon the rocks at the Cape of Good Hope,
which, I am sure, will interest you as much for the perseverance and
docility of the animal, as for the benevolence and intrepidity of its
owner.

"A violent gale of wind setting in from north and north-west, a vessel
in the roads dragged her anchors, was forced on the rocks, and bilged;
and while the greater part of the crew fell an immediate sacrifice to
the waves, the remainder were seen from the shore struggling for their
lives, by clinging to the different pieces of the wreck. The sea ran
dreadfully high, and broke over the sailors with such amazing fury, that
no boat whate