trong hand from the interior of the hedge,
seizing Pepper, dragged him through; and Clifford,--for the reader
need not be told who was the farmer, perceiving the approaching
reinforcement, shouted at once for flight. The robber who had guarded
Nabbem, and who indeed was no other than Old Bags, slow as he habitually
was, lost not an instant in providing for himself; before you could say
"Laudamus," he was on the other side of the hedge. The two men engaged
with the police-officers were not capable of an equal celerity; but
Clifford, throwing himself into the contest and engaging the policemen,
gave the robbers the opportunity of escape. They scrambled through the
fence; the officers, tough fellows and keen, clinging lustily to them,
till one was felled by Clifford, and the other, catching against a
stump, was forced to relinquish his hold; he then sprang back into
the road and prepared for Clifford, who now, however, occupied himself
rather in fugitive than warlike measures. Meanwhile, the moment the
other rescuers had passed the Rubicon of the hedge, their flight, and
that of the gentlemen who had passed before them, commenced. On this
mystic side of the hedge was a cross-road, striking at once through an
intricate and wooded part of the country, which allowed speedy and
ample opportunities of dispersion. Here a light cart, drawn by two swift
horses in a tandem fashion, awaited the fugitives. Long Ned and Augustus
were stowed down at the bottom of this vehicle; three fellows filed away
at their irons, and a fourth, who had hitherto remained inglorious with
the cart, gave the lash--and he gave it handsomely--to the coursers.
Away rattled the equipage; and thus was achieved a flight still
memorable in the annals of the elect, and long quoted as one of
the boldest and most daring exploits that illicit enterprise ever
accomplished.

Clifford and his equestrian comrade only remained in the field, or
rather the road. The former sprang at once on his horse; the latter was
not long in following the example. But the policeman, who, it has been
said, baffled in detaining the fugitives of the hedge, had leaped back
into the road, was not idle in the meanwhile. When he saw Clifford about
to mount, instead of attempting to seize the enemy, he recurred to his
pistol, which in the late struggle hand to hand he had been unable to
use, and taking sure aim at Clifford, whom he judged at once to be the
leader of the rescue, he lodged a ba