Chapter 14
What happened to Mr. Jones in his journey from St. Albans
They were got about two miles beyond Barnet, and it was now the dusk
of the evening, when a genteel-looking man, but upon a very shabby
horse, rode up to Jones, and asked him whether he was going to London;
to which Jones answered in the affirmative. The gentleman replied,
"I should be obliged to you, sir, if you will accept of my company;
for it is very late, and I am a stranger to the road." Jones readily
complied with the request; and on they travelled together, holding
that sort of discourse which is usual on such occasions.
Of this, indeed, robbery was the principal topic: upon which subject
the stranger expressed great apprehensions; but Jones declared he
had very little to lose, and consequently as little to fear. Here
Partridge could not forbear putting in his word. "Your honour," said
he, "may think it a little, but I am sure, if I had a hundred-pound
bank-note in my pocket, as you have, I should be very sorry to lose
it; but, for my part, I never was less afraid in my life; for we are
four of us, and if we all stand by one another, the best man in
England can't rob us. Suppose he should have a pistol, he can kill but
one of us, and a man can die but once.- That's my comfort, a man can
die but once."
Besides the reliance on superior numbers, a kind of valour which
hath raised a certain nation among the moderns to a high pitch of
glory, there was another reason for the extraordinary courage which
Partridge now discovered; for he had at present as much of that
quality as was in the power of liquor to bestow.
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