“Now, Corbet,” observed Sir Thomas apart to him, “you have full instructions how to act; and see that you carry them out to the letter.  You will find no difficulty in keeping this person in a state of intoxication all the way.  Go back to ------, engage old Bradbury to drive the chaise, for, although deaf and stupid, he is an excellent driver.  Change the chaise and horses, however, as often as you can, so as that it may be difficult, if not impossible, to trace the route you take.  Give Benson, who, after all, is the prince of mad doctors, the enclosure which you have in the blank cover; and tell him, he shall have an annuity to the same amount, whether this fellow lives or dies.  Mark me, Corbet—­whether his charge lives or dies.  Repeat these words to him twice, as I have done to you.  Above all things, let him keep him safe—­safe—­safe.  Remember, Corbet, that our family have been kind friends to yours.  I, therefore, have trusted you all along in this matter, and calculate upon your confidence as a grateful and honest man, as well as upon your implicit obedience to every order I have given you.  I myself shall drive home the carriage; and when we get near Red Hall, Gillespie can ride forward, have his horse put up, and the stable and coachhouse doors open, so that everything tomorrow morning may look as if no such expedition had taken place.”

They then separated; Corbet to conduct poor Fenton to his dreary cell in a mad-house, and Sir Thomas to seek that upon which, despite his most ambitious projects, he had been doomed all his life to seek after in vain—­rest on an uneasy pillow.

CHAPTER XVII.  A Scene in Jemmy Trailcudgel’s

—­Retributive Justice, or the Robber robbed.

In the days of which we write, travelling was a very different process from what it is at present.  Mail-coaches and chaises were the only vehicles then in requisition, with the exception of the awkward gingles, buggies, and other gear of that nondescript class which were peculiar to the times, and principally confined to the metropolis.  The result of this was, that travellers, in consequence of the slow jog-trot motion of those curious and inconvenient machines, were obliged, in order to transact their business with something like due dispatch, to travel both by night and day.  In this case, as in others, the cause produced the effect; or rather, we should say, the temptation occasioned the crime.  Highway-robbery was frequent; and many a worthy man—­fat farmer and wealthy commoner—­was eased of his purse in despite of all his armed precautions and the most sturdy resistance.  The poorer classes, in every part of the country, were, with scarcely an exception, the friends of those depredators; by whom, it is true, they were aided against oppression, and assisted in their destitution, as a compensation for connivance and shelter whenever the executive authorities were in pursuit of them.