It happened the baron had a younger brother in the Emperor’s service, whose merit having raised him to a considerable rank in his armies, he had acquired a very considerable estate, to the amount of upwards of one hundred thousand crowns, which on his death he bequeathed him.  Upon this accession of fortune, the Baron Casteja, as is but too frequent, fell to his old habit, and became as fond of gaming as ever.  The poor lady saw this with the utmost concern, and dreaded the confounding this legacy, as all the baron’s former fortune had been consumed by his being the dupe of gamesters.  In deep affliction at the consideration of what might in future times become the Chevalier’s fortune, she therefore entreated the baron to lay out part of the sum in somewhat which might be a provision for his son.  The baron promised both readily and faithfully that he would out of the first remittance.  A few weeks later he received forty thousand crowns and the baroness and he set out for Brussels, under pretence of enquiring for something proper for his purpose, carrying with him twenty thousand crowns for the purchase.  But he forgot the errand upon the road, and no sooner arrived at Brussels, but going to a famous marquis’s entertainment, in a very few hours lost the last penny of his money.  Returning home after this misfortune, he was a little out of humour for a week, but at the end of that space, making up the other twenty thousand privately he intended to set out next day.

The poor lady, at her wit’s end for fear this large sum should go the same way as the other, bethought herself of a method of securing both the cash and her son’s place.  She communicated her design to her major domo, who readily came into it, and having taken three of the servants and the baroness’s page into the secret, he sent for Barton and another Englishman quartered near them, and easily prevailed on them for a very small sum, to become accomplices in the undertaking.  In a word, the lady having provided disguises for them, and a man’s suit for herself, caused the touch-holes of the arms which the baron and two servants carried with him to be nailed up, and then towards evening sallying at the head of her little troop from a wood, as he passed on the road, the baron being rendered incapable of resistance, was robbed of the whole twenty thousand crowns.  With this she settled her son, and the baron was so far touched at the loss of such a provision for his family, that he made a real and thorough reformation, and Barton from this exploit fell in love with robbing ever after.

Another adventure he related was this.  Being taken prisoner by the French, and carried to one of their frontier garrisons, a treaty shortly being expected to be settled, to relieve the miseries he endured, Barton got into the service of a Gascon officer who proved at bottom almost as poor as himself.  However, after Barton’s coming he quickly found a way to live as well as anybody in the garrison, which he