us up like gentlemen: and, at last, he proposed to me to rob him.
Intoxicated as I was, I was somewhat startled at this proposition.
However, the slang terms in which Thornton disguised the greatness and
danger of the offence, very much diminished both in my eyes--so at length
I consented.

"We went to Sir John's inn, and learnt that he had just set out;
accordingly, we mounted our horses, and rode after him. The night had
already closed in. After we had got some distance from the main road,
into a lane, which led both to my house and to Chester Park--for the
former was on the direct way to my lord's--we passed a man on horseback.
I only observed that he was wrapped in a cloak--but Thornton said,
directly we had passed him, "I know that man well--he has been following
Tyrrell all day--and though he attempts to screen himself, I have
penetrated his disguise; he is Tyrrell's mortal enemy."

"'Should the worst come to the worst," added Thornton, (words which I did
not at that moment understand) we can make him bear the blame.'"

"When we had got some way further, we came up to Tyrrell and a gentleman,
whom, to our great dismay, we found that Sir John had joined--the
gentleman's horse had met with an accident, and Thornton dismounted to
offer his assistance. He assured the gentleman, who proved afterwards to
be a Mr. Pelham, that the horse was quite lame, and that he would
scarcely be able to get it home; and he then proposed to Sir John to
accompany us, and said that we would put him in the right road; this
offer Sir John rejected very haughtily, and we rode on.

"'It's all up with us,' said I; 'since he has joined another person.'