This eBook was produced by David Widger
By Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Let a Physician be ever so excellent,
there will be those that censure him.
—Gil Blas.
We left Walter in a situation of that critical nature, that it would beinhuman to delay our return to him any longer. The blow by which he hadbeen felled, stunned him for an instant; but his frame was of no commonstrength and hardihood, and the imminent peril in which he was placed,served to recall him from the momentary insensibility. On recoveringhimself, he felt that the ruffians were dragging him towards the hedge,and the thought flashed upon him that their object was murder. Nerved bythis idea, he collected his strength, and suddenly wresting himself fromthe grasp of one of the ruffians who had seized him by the collar, he hadalready gained his knee, and now his feet, when a second blow once moredeprived him of sense.
When a dim and struggling consciousness recurred to him; he found thatthe villains had dragged him to the opposite side of the hedge and weredeliberately robbing him. He was on the point of renewing an useless anddangerous struggle, when one of the ruffians said, "I think he stirs, Ihad better draw my knife across his throat."
"Pooh, no!" replied another voice, "never kill if it can be helped: trustme 'tis an ugly thing to think of afterwards. Besides, what use is it? Arobbery, in these parts, is done and forgotten; but a murder rouses thewhole country."
"Damnation, man! why, the deed's done already, he's as dead as a door-nail."
"Dead!" said the other in a startled voice; "no, no!" and leaning down,the ruffian placed his hand on Walter's heart. The unfortunate travellerfelt his flesh creep as the hand touched him, but prudently abstainedfrom motion or exclamation. He thought, however, as with dizzy and half-shut eyes he caught the shadowy and dusk outline of the face that bentover him, so closely that he felt the breath of its lips, that it was onethat he had seen before; and as the man now rose, and the wan light ofthe skies gave a somewhat clearer view of his features, the suppositionwas heightened, though not absolutely confirmed. But Walter had nofarther power to observe his plunderers: again his brain reeled; the darktrees, the grim shadows of human forms, swam before his glazing eye; andhe sunk once more into a profound insensibility.
Meanwhile, the doughty Corporal had at the first sight of his master'sfall, halted abruptly at the spot to which his steed had carried him; andcoming rapidly to the conclusion that three men were best encountered ata distance, he fired his two pistols, and without staying to see if theytook effect, which, indeed, they did not, galloped down the precipitoushill with as much despatch, as if it had been the last stage to "Lunnun."
"My poor young master!" muttered he: "But if the worst comes to theworst, the chief part of the money's in the saddle-bags any how; and so,messieurs thieves, you're bit—baugh!"
The Corporal was not long in reaching the town, and alarming the loungersat the inn-door. A posse comitatus was soon formed; and, armed as if theywere to have encountered all