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272 barrel of a horse-pistol. We may believe, without a reflection on his courage, that Mr. Brandon threw himself back into his carriage with all possible dispatch, and at the same moment the door was opened, and a voice said, not in a threatening, but a smooth accent, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am sorry to disturb you, but want is imperious! oblige me with your money, your watches, your rings, and any other little commodities of a similar nature!"

So delicate a request the Squire had not the heart to resist, the more especially as he knew himself without any weapons of defence; accordingly he drew out a purse, not very full it must be owned, together with an immense silver hunting-watch, with a piece of black-ribbon attached to it: "There, Sir," said he, with a groan, "don't frighten the young lady."

The gentle applicant, who indeed was no other than the specious Augustus Tomlinson, slid the purse into his waistcoat-pocket, after feeling its contents with a rapid and scientific finger. "Your