f a villain who had robbed him of nearly all he had. But he had
good qualities, and I know for certain that he never did half the bad
things laid to his charge; for example, he never bribed Tom Oliver to
fight cross, as it was said he did, on the day of the awful thunderstorm.
{281a} Ned Flatnose fairly beat Tom Oliver, for though Ned was not
what's called a good fighter, he had a particular blow, which if he could
put in he was sure to win. His right shoulder, do you see, was two
inches farther back than it ought to have been, and consequently his
right fist generally fell short; but if he could swing himself round, and
put in a blow with that right arm, he could kill or take away the senses
of anybody in the world. It was by putting in that blow in his second
fight with Spring that he beat noble Tom. Spring beat him like a sack in
the first battle, but in the second Ned Painter--for that was his real
name--contrived to put in his blow, and took the senses out of Spring;
and in like manner he took the senses out of Tom Oliver.

'Well, some are born to be hanged, and some are not; and many of those
who are not hanged are much worse than those who are. Jack, with many a
good quality, is hanged, whilst that fellow of a lord, who wanted to get
the horse from you at about two-thirds of his value, without a single
good quality in the world, is not hanged, and probably will remain so.
You ask the reason why, perhaps. I'll tell you; the lack of a certain
quality called courage, which Jack possessed in abundance, will preserve
him; from the love which he bears his own neck he will do nothing which
can bring him to the gallows. {281b} In my rough way I'll draw their
characters from their childhood, and then ask whether Jack was not the
best character of the two. Jack was a rough, audacious boy, fond of
fighting, going a birds'-nesting, but I never heard he did anything
particularly cruel save once, I believe, tying a canister to a butcher's
dog's tail; whilst this fellow of a lord was by nature a savage beast,
and when a boy would in winter pluck poor fowls naked, and set them
running on the ice and in the snow, and was particularly fond of burning
cats alive in the fire. Jack, when a lad, gets a commission on board a
ship as an officer of horse marines, and in two or three engagements
behaves quite up to the mark--at least of a marine; the marines having no
particular character for courage you know--never having run to