Page:History of John M'Pherson, Dick Balf, and Gilder Roy.pdf/14



14               enterprises in robbing passengers on the road, that above fiifty travellers had been com- pelled to deliver him their purses of con- siderable value, in six months time, which made the people so timorous, that they carried no money about them except tra- velling charges; by which means Dick often met with disappointments, which enraged him to that degree, that in re- venge, as he called it, he neither spared man, woman, nor child that fell in his way. Such disappointments made him think it necessary to change his quarters for a               while, and accordingly, having fixed his places of rendezvous, he scours the other three provinces with the like success, and thought the whole of the nation scarcely large enough to furnish him with occa- sions; and like death, never took any de- nial till he was satisfied. One day, as he was hunting in quest of his game, he met earl of D--I between Ballyshannon and Sligo, passing in his coach, and having suprised and made his servants prisoners, he road up to the earl, expecting a large booty, but finding he               had no more than 150 guineas about him, Balf was very much dissatisfied at it, and