aid Dick Tator by the heels.
BEN JONSON--Tale of a Tub.

Meanwhile Clifford strode rapidly through the streets which surrounded
the judge's house, and turning to an obscurer quartier of the town,
entered a gloomy lane or alley. Here he was abruptly accosted by a man
wrapped in a shaggy great-coat, of somewhat a suspicious appearance.

"Aha, Captain!" said he, "you are beyond your time, but all 's well!"

Attempting, with indifferent success, the easy self-possession which
generally marked his address to his companions, Clifford, repeating the
stranger's words, replied,--

"All's well! What! are the prisoners released?"

"No, faith!" answered the man, with a rough laugh, "not yet; but all
in good time. It is a little too much to expect the justices to do our
work, though, by the Lord Harry, we often do theirs!"

"What then?" asked Clifford, impatiently.

"Why, the poor fellows had been carried to the town of -----, and
brought before the queer cuffin (Magistrate) ere I arrived, though I
set off the moment you told me, and did the journey in four hours.
The examination lasted all yesterday, and they were remanded till
to-day,--let's see, it is not yet noon; we may be there before it's
over."

"And this is what you call well!" said Clifford, angrily. "No, Captain,
don't be glimflashy! You have not heard all yet! It seems that the only
thing buffed hard against them was by a stout grazier, who was cried
'Stand!' to, some fifty miles off the town; so the queer coffin thinks
of sending the poor fellows to the jail of the county where they did the
business!"

"Ah! that may leave some hopes for them! We must look sharp to their
journey; if they once get to prison, their only chances are the file
and the bribe. Unhappily, neither of them is so lucky as myself at that
trade!"

"No, indeed, there is not a stone-wall in England that the great
Captain Lovett could not creep through, I'll swear!" said the admiring
satellite.

"Saddle the horses and load the pistols! I will join you in ten minutes.
Have my farmer's dress ready, the false hair, etc. Choose your own trim.
Make haste; the Three Feathers is the house of meeting."

"And in ten minutes only, Captain?"

"Punctually!"

The stranger turned a corner and was out of sight. Clifford, muttering,
"Yes, I was the cause of their apprehension; it was I who was sought;
it is but fair that I should strike a blow for their escape before