Hind took the box joyfully; but when he turned to murmur a word of
gratitude, the witch struck his nag's flanks with a white wand, the
horse leapt vehemently forward, and Hind saw his benefactress no more.
Henceforth, however, a warning voice spoke to him as plainly as did the
demon to Socrates; and had he but obeyed the beldame's admonition, he
might have escaped a violent death. For he passed the last day of the
third year at the siege of Youghal, where; deprived of happy guidance,
he was seriously wounded, and whence he presently regained England to
his own undoing.

So long as he kept to the road, his life was one long comedy. His wit
and address were inexhaustible, and fortune never found him at a loss.
He would avert suspicion with the tune of a psalm, as when, habited
like a pious shepherd, he broke a traveller's head with his crook, and
deprived him of his horse. An early adventure was to force a pot-valiant
parson, who had drunk a cup too much at a wedding, into a rarely
farcical situation. Hind, having robbed two gentlemen's servants of a
round sum, went ambling along the road until he encountered a parson.
'Sir,' said he, 'I am closely pursued by robbers. You, I dare swear,
will not stand by and see me plundered.' Before the parson could
protest, he thrust a pistol into his hand, and bade him fire it at the
first comer, while he rode off to raise the county. Meanwhile the rifled
travellers came up with the parson, who, straightway, mistaking them
for thieves, fired without effect, and then, riding forward, flung the
pistol in the face of the nearest. Thus the parson of the parish was
dragged before the magistrate, while Hind, before his dupe could
furnish an explanation, had placed many a mile between himself and his
adversary.

Though he could on occasion show a clean pair of heels, Hind was never