Page:History of John M'Pherson, Dick Balf, and Gilder Roy.pdf/10



10                     bred in the bone began to appear once more in the flesh," so he betook himself                     to picking pockets, till being so often                      in a chair, and ducked in a horse pond,                      (which was a sort of punishment then                      used for several kinds of petty larceny,)                      that he grew tired of that callling, and                      inlisted himself into a gang of Satyrs,                      who make it their business to steal all                      kinds of cattle that came in their way.                      It would be surprising to hear of all the                      methods these Satyrs have of conveying                      cattle away in the night. But however,                      this trade was attended with so much                      trouble, and not answering his end, that                      Balf soon grew tired of it, and became a Cygaret, whose business is to cut off the skirts of a coat, gown, or pocket, or                     any other part of a garment that hangs loose, when people are at their devotion in any public assembly; which not an- swering neither, he entered himself into a gang of Grumets, who, either by scal- ing walls with rope ladders, or creeping in at holes and windows, in the night, rob houses privately. It happened one night, that Dick being on an exploit of                     this kind, he found a considerable booty of plate and other valuable things, worth