ork, or from
Carlisle to Berwick, could never be above a certain length. Measured by
a string probably such would have been the case; but if the reader
considers how much more sand, gravel, mud, and clay, the wheels of a
carriage had to go through in those days, he will easily see how it was
the distances were so protracted.
At all events, fifty or sixty miles was a long, laborious journey; and
at whatever hour the traveller might set out upon his way, he was not
likely to reach the end of it, without becoming a "borrower from the
night of a dark hour or two."
Such was the case with the tenant of a large cumbrous carriage, which,
drawn heavily on by four stout horses wended slowly on the King's
Highway, not very far from the spot where the wooden gates that we have
described raised their white faces by the side of the road.
The panels of that carriage, as well as the ornaments of the top
thereof, bore the arms of a British earl; and there was a heavy and
dignified swagger about the vehicle itself, which seemed to imply a
consciousness even in the wood and leather of the dignity of the person
within. He, for his own part, though a graceful and very courtly
personage, full of high talent, policy, and wit, had nothing about him
at all of the pomposity of his vehicle; and at the moment which we refer
to, namely, about two hours after nightfall, tired with his long
journey, and seated with solitary thought, he had drawn a fur-cap
lightly over his head, and, leaning back in the carriage, enjoyed not
unpleasant repose.
To be woke out of one's slumbers suddenly at any time, or by any means,
is a very unpleasant sensation; but there are few occasions that we can
conceive, on which such an event is more disagreeable than when we are
thus woke, to find a pistol at our breast, and some one demanding our
money.
The Earl of Sunbury was sleeping quietly in his carriage with the most
perfect feeling of security, though those indeed were not very secure
times; when suddenly the carriage stopped, and he started up. Scarcely,
however, was he awake to what was passing round, than the door of the
carriage was opened, and a man of gentlemanly appearance, with a pistol
in his right hand, and his horse's bridle over the left arm, presented
himself to the eyes of the peer. At the same time, through the opposite
window of the carriage, was seen another man on horseback; while the
Earl judged, and judged rightly, that there must be others of the same
fraternity at the heads of