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King at Windsor. Lord Ossulston escaped witli the loss chap.

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of two horses. The Duke of Saint Albans, with the help mas.of his servants, heat off the assailants. His brother theDuke of Northumberland, less strongly guarded, fell intotheir hands. They succeeded in stopping thirty or fortycoaches, and rode off with a great booty in guineas,watches and jewellery. Nowhere, however, does the perilseem to have been so great as on the Newmarket road.

There indeed robbery was organised on a scale unparal-leled in the kingdom since the days of Eohin Hood andLittle John. A fraternity of plunderers, thirty in numberaccording to the lowest estimate, squatted, near WalthamCross, under the shades of Epping Forest, and built them-selves huts, from which they sallied forth with sword andpistol to bid passengers stand. The King and Tallardwere doubtless too well attended to he in jeopardy. But,soon after they had passed the dangerous spot, there was afight on the highway attended with loss of life. A warrantof the Lord Chief Justice broke up the Maroon village for ashort time: but the dispersed thieves soon mustered again,and had the impudence to bid defiance to the governmentin a cartel signed, it was said, with their real names. Thecivil power was unable to deal with this frightful evil. Itwas necessary that, during some time, cavalry shouldpatrol every evening on the roads near the boundary be-tween Middlesex and Essex.

The state of those roads, however, though contempo-raries described it as dangerous beyond all example, did