trembling, he said,--

"You, sir, seem to be a civil person, and I really should have felt quite
sorry if I had had the misfortune to wound you. You are not hurt, I
trust. Pray, if I may inquire, how am I to proceed? My carriage is in
the ditch, and my horses by this time are probably at the end of the
world."

"As for that matter," said the robber, whose face, like those of his
comrades, was closely masked in the approved fashion of highwaymen of
that day, "I believe you will have to walk to Maidenhead,--it is not far,
and the night is fine!"

"A very trifling hardship, indeed!" said Mauleverer, ironically; but his
new acquaintance made no reply, nor did he appear at all desirous of
entering into any further conversation with Mauleverer.

The earl, therefore, after watching the operations of the other robbers
for some moments, turned on his heel, and remained humming an opera tune
with dignified indifference until the pair had finished rifling the
carriage, and seizing Mauleverer, proceeded to rifle him.

With a curled lip and a raised brow, that supreme personage suffered
himself to be, as the taller robber expressed it, "cleaned out." His
watch, his rings, his purse, and his snuff-box, all went. It was long
since the rascals had captured such a booty.

They had scarcely finished when the postboys, who had now begun to look
about them, uttered a simultaneous cry, and at some distance a wagon was
seen heavily approaching. Mauleverer really wanted his money, to say