ighwayman."

Tom was indeed a pleasant fellow in his day. His career was brief, but
brilliant: your meteors are ever momentary. He was a younger son of a
good family; had good blood in his veins, though not a groat in his
pockets. According to the old song--

When he arrived at man's estate,
It was _all the estate_ he had;

and all the estate he was ever likely to have. Nevertheless, if he had
no income, he contrived, as he said, to live as if he had the mines of
Peru at his control--a miracle not solely confined to himself. For a
moneyless man, he had rather expensive habits. He kept his three nags;
and, if fame does not belie him, a like number of mistresses; nay, if we
are to place any faith in certain scandalous chronicles to which we have
had access, he was for some time the favored lover of a celebrated
actress, who, for the time, supplied him with the means of keeping up
his showy establishment. But things could not long hold thus. Tom was a
model of infidelity, and that was the only failing his mistress could
not overlook. She dismissed him at a moment's notice. Unluckily, too, he
had other propensities which contributed to involve him. He had a taste
for the turf--a taste for play--was well known in the hundreds of Drury,
and cut no mean figure at Howell's, and the faro tables there-anent. He
was the glory of the Smyrna, D'Osyndar's, and other chocolate houses of
the day; and it was at this time he fell into the hands of certain
dexterous sharpers, by whom he was at first plucked and subsequently
patronized. Under their tuition he improved wonderfully. He turned his
wit and talent to some account. He began to open his eyes. His nine
days' blindness was over. The dog saw. But, in spite of his quickness,
he was at length discovered, and ejected from Howell's in a manner that
left him no alternative. He must either have called out his adversary,
or have gone out himself. He preferred the latter, and took to the road;
and in his new line he was eminently successful. Fortunately, he had no
scruples to get over. Tom had what Sir Walter Scott happily denominates
"an indistinct notion of _meum_ and _tuum_," and became confirmed in the
opinion that everything he could lay hands upon constituted lawful
spoil. And then, even those he robbed, admitted that he was the most
gentlemanlike highwayman they had ever the fortune to meet with, and
trusted they might always be so lucky. So popular did he become upon the