The Fashionable Highwayman

by Emerson Bennett

Perhaps no other country in the world had so much romance connected with its highway robberies, as England during the last century; and notwithstanding that the penalty of conviction for this daring crime was death by the hangman, there were never wanting bold knights of the road, every ready to demand a purse and take the chances of ending their lives by the rope.

Some of these fellows might be classed as rogues and rascals rather than villains, since they stole and robbed merely to support themselves in idle extravagance and dissipation, and really bore no malice against their race, and shrank as much as better men from the idea of taking life except in self-defense. Some of them, too, professed an outward degree of refinement in dress, manners and language, and were probably no worse at heart than many of the proud, rich and fashionable men whom it was their ambition to mingle with and imitate.

Such at least was one William Derwent, who figured in London about the middle of the eighteenth century. He was born in the country, of respectable parents, received a good education, and at the age of one-and-twenty came into possession of a handsome legacy, left him by an uncle. This was enough, with care and prudence, to have rendered him independent of the monetary annoyances of life; but unfortunately he made the acquaintance of some extravagant young men from London, who portrayed that city in such glowing colors that he at once resolved to take lodgings there and see life; and against the advice of his friends, and the tearful prayers of his parents, he went, and at once entered on a giddy round of dissipation, the result of which was ruin in two short years.

When Derwent at length saw the end of his fortune was reached, that his last check had drawn his… Read More