ies) there is a law by which no member of the gang
may steal from another: but my little heaven-instructed youth would
by no means abide by that distinction; and so boldly designed and well
executed were his rogueries that my paternal anxiety saw nothing before
him but Botany Bay on the one hand and Newgate courtyard on the other."

"A sad prospect for the heir apparent!" quoth Clarence.

"It was so!" answered Cole; "and it made me deliberate. Then, as one
gets older one's romance oozes out a little in rheums and catarrhs. I
began to perceive that, though I had been bred I had not been educated
as a gypsy; and, what was worse, Lucy, though she never complained, felt
that the walls of our palace were not exempt from the damps of winter,
nor our royal state from the Caliban curses of--

'Cramps and
Side stitches that do pen our breath up.'"

"She fell ill; and during her illness I had sundry bright visions of
warm rooms and coal fires, a friend with whom I could converse upon
Chaucer, and a tutor for my son who would teach him other arts than
those of picking pockets and pilfering larders. Nevertheless, I was a
little ashamed of my own thoughts; and I do not know whether they would
have been yet put into practice, but for a trifling circumstance which
converted doubt and longing into certainty."

"Our crank cuffins had for some time looked upon me with suspicion
and coldness: my superior privileges and comforts they had at first
forgiven, on account of my birth and my generosity to them; but by
degrees they lost respect for the one and gratitude for the other;
and as I had in a great measure ceased from participating in their
adventures, or, during Lucy's illness, which lasted several months,
joining in their festivities, they at length considered me as a drone
in a hive, by no means compensating by my services as an ally for my
admittance into their horde as a stranger. You will easily conceive,
when this once became the state of their feelings towards me, with how
ill a temper they brooked the lordship of my stately caravan and my
assumption of superior command. Above all, the women, who were very
much incensed at Lucy's constant seclusion from their orgies, fanned the
increasing discontent; and, at last, I verily believe that no eyesore
could have been more grievous to the Egyptians than my wooden habitation
and the smoke of its single chimney."

"From ill-will the rascals proceeded to ill acts; and