e found ten
Portugal pieces in the shoes of a quaker, whom the spirit moved to
revile me with great bitterness and devotion; but what I value myself
mostly for is, this here purchase, a gold snuffbox, my girl, with a
picture on the inside of the lid; which I untied out of the tail of a
pretty lady's smock."

Here, as the devil would have it, the pedlar snored so loud, that the
highwayman, snatching his pistols, started up, crying, "Hell and d-n-n!
I am betrayed! Who's that in the next room?" Mrs. Betty told him he need
not be uneasy: there were only three poor travellers, who, missing the
road, had taken up their lodgings in the house, and were asleep long
ago. "Travellers," says he, "spies, you b--ch! But no matter; I'll send
them all to hell in an instant!" He accordingly ran towards our door;
when his sweetheart interposing, assured him, there was only a couple
of poor young Scotchmen, who were too raw and ignorant to give him the
least cause of suspicion; and the third was a presbyterian pedlar of the
same nation, who had often lodged in the house before.

This declaration satisfied the thief, who swore he was glad there was a
pedlar, for he wanted some linen. Then, in a jovial manner, he put
about the glass, mingling his discourse to Betty with caresses and
familiarities, that spoke him very happy in his amours. During that part
of the conversation which regarded this, Strap had crept under the
bed, where he lay in the agonies of fear; so that it was with great
difficulty I persuaded him our danger was over, and prevailed on him to
awake the pedlar, and inform him of what he had seen and heard.

The itinerant merchant no sooner felt somebody shaking him by the
shoulder, than he started up, called, as loud as he could, "Thieves,
thieves! Lord have mercy upon us!" And Rifle, alarmed at this
exclamation, jumped up, cocked one of his pistols, and turned towards
the door to kill the first man that should enter; for he verily believed
himself beset: when his Dulcinea, after an immoderate fit of laughter,
persuaded him that the poor pedlar, dreaming of thieves, had only cried
out in his sleep.

Meanwhile, my comrade had undeceived our fellow-lodger, and informed
him of his reason for disturbing him; upon which, getting up softly, he
peeped through the hole, and was so terrified with what he saw, that,
falling down on his bare knees, he put up a long petition to Heaven
to deliver him from the hands of that ruffian, and