Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 3).djvu/102

 five or six banditti, who rifled the carriage, took from us our portmanteau and money, cut the traces of the horses, and then bid us walk to the place of our destination, as we had now no baggage to encumber us.

There was no alternative; night was drawing on; and we were compelled to walk; for the horses being loosened, they run away through the wood, and the post boy went in pursuit of them. With infinite difficulty, my poor father crept to the inn, where his troubles in this life were to have an end. A very miserable bed was allowed for him, and I watched by the side of it in inexpressible agonies. The next morning the landlord told us, "we must turn out; he had no bed to spare for sick folkes." I sought to reason with him, and assured him I should soon have money amply to reward him, if he would accommodate my dying father: But in vain I tried to reason with a selfish brute. He insisted upon our departure before night; and though he assisted me in getting him down from the hovel which he