muttered my
companion. 'By the Mass, that old white-headed psalm-singer was right;
for if my memory serves me, he said words to that effect. A few handfuls
of dust will hide the stains. Now we may jog upon our way without any
fear of being called upon to answer for another man's sins. Let me but
get my girth tightened and we may soon be out of danger's way.'

'I have had to do,' said Saxon, as we rode onwards, 'with many gentry
of this sort, with Albanian brigands, the banditti of Piedmont, the
Lanzknechte and Freiritter of the Rhine, Algerine picaroons, and other
such folk. Yet I cannot call to mind one who hath ever been able to
retire in his old age on a sufficient competence. It is but a precarious
trade, and must end sooner or later in a dance on nothing in a tight
cravat, with some kind friend tugging at your legs to ease you of any
breath that you might have left.'

'Nor does that end all,' I remarked.

'No. There is Tophet behind and the flames of hell. So our good friends
the parsons tell us. Well, if a man is to make no money in this world,
be hanged at the end of it, and finally burn for ever, he hath assuredly
wandered on to a thorny track. If, on the other hand, one could always
lay one's hands on a well-lined purse, as those rogues have done
to-night, one might be content to risk something in the world to come.'

'But what can the well-filled purse do for them?' said I. 'What will
the few score pieces which these bloodthirsty wretches have filched from
this poor creature avail them when their own hour of death comes round?'

'True,' said Saxon dryly; 'they may, however, prove useful in the
meantime. This you say is Bishopstoke. What are the lights over yonder?'

'They come, I think, from Bishop's Waltham,' I answered.

'We must press on, for I would fain be in Salisbury before it is broad
day. There we shall put our horses up until evening and have some rest,
for there is nothing gained by man or beast coming jaded to the wars.
All this day the western roads will be crowded with couriers, and mayhap
patrolled by cavalry as well, so that we cannot show our faces upon it
without a risk of being stopped and examined. Now if we lie by all day,
and push on at dusk, keeping off the main road and making our way across
Salisbury Plain and the Somersetshire downs, we shall be less likely to
come to harm.'

'But what if Monmouth be engaged before we come up to him?' I asked.

'Then we shall have missed a ch