“I will with pleasure, sir, as soon as you are both in the carriage,” replied I; for I had made up my mind how to proceed.  I assisted them in, and, shutting the door, slipped off the cloak and put it in at the window, saying, “Believe me, madam, I should have offered it to you before, but the fact is, the rascals served me, as I lay stunned, in the same manner as they have you, and I must now go in search of something to cover myself.”  I then went off at a quick pace, hearing the young woman exclaim, “Oh, my father, he has stripped himself to cover me!”

I immediately returned to the body of the gentleman whose cloak I had borrowed, and for whom I had no doubt that I had been mistaken.  I stripped off all the clothes from his rigid limbs, and put them on:  they fitted me exactly, and, what was more fortunate, were not stained with blood, as he had received his death-wound from a bullet in the brain.  I then dragged the body to the other side of the hedge, where I threw it into a ditch, and covered it with long grass, that it might not be discovered.  Daylight had made its appearance before I had completed my toilet; and when I came back to the carriage, the old gentleman was loud in his thanks.  I told him that in returning to strip one of the other bodies I had found my own clothes in a bundle, which the robbers had left in their haste to escape from pursuit.

The young lady said nothing, but sat shrouded up in the cloak, in one corner of the carriage.  I now entered into conversation with the old gentleman, who explained to me how the attack began, before I had come to their assistance:  and from the information I received from him, I was enabled to form a very good idea of the story that I was to tell.  I found that I had been on horseback with my servant, when I rode to their assistance; that we had been both supposed to be killed, and that we were about five miles from any post town.

By this time it was broad daylight, and I made another discovery, which was, that I was wearing an officer’s undress.  Anxious to gratify my curiosity by a sight of the young lady, I turned to her, as she lay muffled up in the cloak, and expressed a hope that she did not feel cold.  She put her head out, and answered in the negative with such a sweet smile, upon such a sweet face as I never had before witnessed.  I looked at her as if transfixed, and did not take my eyes off until she blushed, and again sank back as before.

This brought me to my recollection; I offered to go for assistance, and my services were thankfully accepted.  I passed by the men who had been killed, as I went on my mission; one was habited in a livery similar to the coach-man who lay dead by his horses; the other was in that of a groom, and I took it for granted that he had been my servant.  I searched in his pockets for information, and, collecting the contents, commenced reading them as I walked along.