University of Virginia Library

15. CHAPTER XV.
How Dicky Dare meets, and routs, two armies of wagoners,
while Robin Day plays the Babe in the Wood.

My escape from the tavern and the wagoners thus
effected, I ran with all my speed to the nearest wood,
glad to be a freeman once more, though with the loss
of my horse and saddlebags, in which latter was all
my clothes; and the loss of it was the more provoking,
as I had snatched it from Bay Tom's back, when
the wagoner mounted him, and so saved it from the
robber only to leave it to the tender mercies of his
captors. But the loss was, after all, not so very
great; for the villains, notwithstanding their threats,
having abstained from searching my pockets, I was
still in possession of my pocket-book, and the letter
to Mr. Bloodmoney, as well as the string of beads,
which my patron had insisted I should put round
my neck.

I was, I am certain, more grieved at the loss of
my friend Dicky, whose disappearance I knew not
how to account for, than at any other deprivation: as
I had now greater need than ever of his countenance
and assistance. But as I knew not where to look
for him, and felt it needful to improve the time in
getting as far as possible from the dangerous vicinity
of the tavern, I did not pause to lament or consider;
but discovering the points of the compass by the

gray streaks of the dawn, which were beginning to
appear, I turned my face towards the southwest,
which I judged to be pretty nigh the direction of
Philadelphia, and set forward with all the vigour I
possessed, hoping to make my way, like a wild Indian,
through the woods.

And, here, I may as well inform the reader what
became of my friend Dicky; the history of whose
adventures I did not learn until many weeks afterwards.
He had had, like me, the misfortune to be
run away with by his horse; which, plunging into a
wood, managed to get rid of the General, after a
time, by brushing him off against a bough, and then
ended the race by plumping into a swamp, where he
stuck fast, and was presently found by Dicky; who,
after an hour of toil, succeeded in extricating him
from the mire. This done, Dicky rode back to the
battle-ground, and thence to the tavern; at which he
arrived only a few moments after I had left it, and,
indeed, just as my jailers had made discovery of my
flight; which had thrown them into a ferment of
rage and disappointment.

The appearance of Dicky, who, by the questions
he asked after me, they discovered to be my fellow
robber and accomplice in flight, and who would
therefore prove as valuable a capture as myself, was
the signal for an assault that they instantly made
upon him; but which the valiant Dicky, no wise disconcerted
by their numbers, repelled with equal resolution
and discretion. Snatching at his pistols,
which the practice of the night had already made
him familiar with, he let fly among the assailants,
shooting one of them right through the hat; who,
leaping back in mortal terror, overthrew a companion,
with whom he fell to the earth; and both believing
themselves dead men, they yelled out in such a

horrible way that the others were struck with consternation,
and immediately put to flight. Of this
the youthful general, who was too much of a soldier
to pursue a success too far, took instant advantage by
riding off; though only, as it appeared, to encounter
a new danger. The wagoners who had pricked
away with the villanous sailor, in quest of my fancied
accomplice, were by this time returning from
the expedition, after having been by some unaccountable
accident separated from their leader, whom,
with Bay Tom, they were never destined to see
again; and they had arrived so nigh the little inn as
to hear the sounds of conflict, and even to see, though
indistinctly, (for the morning was yet but little advanced,)
the rout of their companions and the retreat
of the victor; whom, not doubting him to be
the identical highwayman they had been seeking,
they now made preparations to intercept: taking up
such a position on the road as rendered a passage
through them desperately difficult, if not wholly impracticable.
But Dicky's soul was now up in arms;
his late victory had given double edge to his courage,
so that he eyed his opponents with disdain, and
resolved to cut his way through them, or die nobly
in the attempt. And for this undertaking there was
now the greater necessity, as he perceived the assailants
he had just put to flight, had caught sight of
their comrades, and being encouraged by the reinforcement,
were making demonstrations of a design
to attack him on the rear.

He rode forward, therefore, preserving a good
countenance, and having come within striking distance,
discharged, without any hesitation, his remaining
pistol as his foes: and then, drawing his hanger,
he charged upon them at full gallop, using his
weapon with such fury, slashing one over the back,

slicing the fingers of a second, and nearly poking
out the eyes of a third, that the wagoners, who had
been already somewhat disconcerted and disordered
by the pistol shot, were thrown into a panic, and
fled from before the terrors of his face; until a lucky
gap in a fence gave them an opportunity of darting
into the woods, and so escaping the terrible thwacks
which he dealt around him with relentless rigour.
The road being thus cleared, the young champion
pursued his way; and giving me up for lost, or supposing,
(as he afterwards told me,) that I was before
him on the road, he spurred onward with such
vigour as to reach Philadelphia before the close of
the day, the distance from our town being full sixty
miles.

As for me, I made no such speed in my journey,
which I was obliged to perform on foot. For though
I discovered, upon examining the pocket-book, that
my good patron had supplied me with abundant
means even to have bought another horse, had I
chosen, or to have travelled in any other way, I was
so terrified at the mishaps that had already befallen
me, and was in such fear of being apprehended a
second time, that I avoided the highway altogether;
and even resorted to lanes and by-ways only because
I found it impossible to make any progress in the
woods; where, besides being always bewildered, I
was in danger of perishing with famine. I made
one or two efforts to hire a horse of farmers in
lonely places, but found no success, none of them
liking my looks, or account of myself, which, I
doubt not, were both suspicious enough; and as
some of them betrayed an inclination, or so I
thought, to detain me upon speculation, in the hope
that they might make something by it, I found myself
compelled to give over all attempts of that kind,

and trust to my own legs for safety. Nay, as I perceived
there was a danger even in visiting their
houses for food or shelter, because they were all so
inquisitive, and so distrustful, when they perceived
my hesitation in answering their questions, I took
means to make such visitations unnecessary, by
buying, in a small village I passed through, a little
wallet or knapsack, which I crammed with food,
and such other necessaries as I could procure, and
slung upon my back. Thus provided, I trudged
along with greater independence, and in less fear,
and even had the hardihood to sleep one night in
the woods, though in horrible discomfort from the
cold, and a furious rain that fell that night.

From these causes, in happened that I travelled
very slowly; and it was not until the afternoon of the
third day that I arrived at the town of Camden on
the Delaware; and thence, in a ferry-boat, crossed
over to Philadelphia; whose huge size and endless
array of ship-masts and chimneys, stretched in a
waving line along the river, filled me with astonishment
and alarm. I was landed by the ferryman at
the foot of High Street, which, as it was a market-day,
was full of people, and especially shad-women;
from one of whom, whose basket I had the misfortune
to make my first step into—being beside myself
with wonder and confusion—I received a benediction
much more eloquent than elegant, and would
perhaps have had a box on the ear also, had I not
made a precipitate retreat out of her reach and the
region of the fish-market.