insisted upon his accompanying them to Bath in the carriage, and allowing
the footman to ride his horse. This offer was still pending, when the
footman, who had been to see after the health and comfort of his fellow-
servant, came to inform the party, in a dolorous accent, of something
which, in the confusion and darkness of the night, they had not yet
learned,--namely, that the horses and coachman were gone!

"Gone!" said the squire, "gone! Why, the villains can't (for my part, I
never believe, though I have heard such wonders of, those sleight of
hand) have bagged them!"

Here a low groan was audible; and the footman, sympathetically guided to
the spot whence it emanated, found the huge body of the coachman safely
deposited, with its face downward, in the middle of the kennel. After
this worthy had been lifted to his legs, and had shaken himself into
intelligence, it was found that when the robber had detained the horses,
the coachman, who required very little to conquer his more bellicose
faculties, had--he himself said, by a violent blow from the ruffian,
though, perhaps, the cause lay nearer home--quitted the coach-box for the
kennel, the horses grew frightened, and after plunging and rearing till
he cared no longer to occupy himself with their arrest, the highwayman
had very quietly cut the traces, and by the time present, it was not
impossible that the horses were almost at the door of their stables at
Bath.

The footman who had apprised the squire of this misfortune was, unlike
most news-tellers, the first to offer consolation. "There be an
excellent public," quoth he, "about a half a mile on, where your honour
could get horses; or, mayhap, if Miss Lucy, poor heart, be faint, you may
like to stop for the night."