object, with a beggar's staff and wallet, sitting on a
stone bench beside the door. "Does Tom Shone Catti live here?" said the
farmer. "Oh yes, he lives here," replied the beggar. "Is he at home?"
"Oh yes, he is at home." "Will you hold my horse whilst I go in and
speak to him?" "Oh yes, I will hold your horse." Thereupon the man
dismounted, took a brace of pistols out of his holsters, gave the cripple
his horse's bridle and likewise his whip, and entered the house boldly.
No sooner was he inside than the beggar, or rather Tom Shone Catti, for
it was he, jumped on the horse's back, and rode away to the farmer's
house which was some ten miles distant, altering his dress and appearance
as he rode along, having various articles of disguise in his wallet.
Arriving at the house he told the farmer's wife that her husband was in
the greatest trouble, and wanted fifty pounds, which she was to send by
him, and that he came mounted on her husband's horse, and brought his
whip, that she might know he was authorised to receive the money. The
wife, seeing the horse and the whip, delivered the money to Tom without
hesitation, who forthwith made the best of his way to London, where he
sold the horse, and made himself merry with the price, and with what he
got from the farmer's wife, not returning to Wales for several months.
Though Tom was known by everybody to be a thief, he appears to have lived
on very good terms with the generality of his neighbours, both rich and
poor. The poor he conciliated by being very free of the money which he
acquired by theft and robbery, and with the rich he ingratiated himself
by humorous jesting, at which he was a proficient, and by being able to
sing a good song. At length, being an extremely good-looking young
fellow, he induced a wealthy lady to promise to marry him. This lady is
represented by some as a widow, and by others as a virgin heiress. After
some time, however, she refused to perform her promise and barred her
doors against him. Tom retired to a cave on the side of a steep wild
hill near the lady's house, to which he frequently repaired, and at last,
having induced her to stretch her hand to him through the window bars,
under the pretence that he wished to imprint a parting kiss upon it, he
won her by seizing her hand and threatening to cut it off unless she
performed her promise. Then, as everything at the time at which he lived
could be done by means of money, he soon obtained