. Every man is in his different mode susceptible to a sense of honour; and
they did not choose to encounter the disgrace that would accrue to them if
justice had been done. Every man is in some degree influenced by the love of
power; and they were willing I should owe any benefit I received, to their
sovereign grace and benignity, and not to the mere reason of the case. It was
not however an unsubstantial honour and barren power that formed the objects of
their pursuit: no, their views were deeper than that. In a word, though they
chose that I should retire from the seat of justice as I had come before it, a
prisoner, yet the tenour of my examination had obliged them in spite of
themselves to suspect, that I was innocent of the charge they alleged against
me. Apprehensive therefore that the hundred guineas which had been offered as a
reward for taking the robber, was completely out of the question in the present
business, they were contented to strike at smaller game. Having conducted me to
an inn, and given directions respecting a vehicle for the journey, they took me
aside, while one of them addressed me in the following manner:
    You see, my lad, how the case stands; heigh for Warwick is the word! and,
when we are got there, what may happen then I will not pretend for to say.
Whether you are innocent or no is no business of mine; but you are not such a
chicken as to suppose, if so be as you are innocent, that that will make your
game altogether sure. You say, your business calls you another way, and as how
you are in haste: I scorns to cross any man in his concerns, if I can help it.
If therefore you will give us them there fifteen shiners, why snug is the word.
They are of no use to you; a beggar, you know, is always at home. For the matter
of that we could have had them in the way of business as you saw at the
justice's. But I am a man of principle; I loves to do things above board, and
scorns to extort a shilling from any man.
    He who is tinctured with principles of moral discrimination, is apt upon
occasion to be run away with by his feelings in that respect, and to forget the
immediate interest of the moment. I confess that the first sentiment excited in
my mind by this overture was that of indignation. I was irresistibly impelled to
give utterance to this feeling, and postpone for a moment the consideration of
