' The terms
were instantly accepted, and in two minutes Hind had run his adversary
through the sword-arm. But finding that his victim was but a poor squire
going to London to pay his composition, he not only returned his
money, but sought him out a surgeon, and gave him the best dinner the
countryside could afford.
Thus it was his pleasure to act as a providence, many a time robbing
Peter to pay Paul, and stripping the niggard that he might indulge
his fervent love of generosity. Of all usurers and bailiffs he had
a wholesome horror, and merry was the prank which he played upon the
extortionate money-lender of Warwick. Riding on an easy rein through the
town, Hind heard a tumult at a street corner, and inquiring the cause,
was told that an innkeeper was arrested by a thievish usurer for
a paltry twenty pounds. Dismounting, this providence in jack-boots
discharged the debt, cancelled the bond, and took the innkeeper's goods
for his own security. And thereupon overtaking the usurer, 'My friend!'
he exclaimed, 'I lent you late a sum of twenty pounds. Repay it at once,
or I take your miserable life.' The usurer was obliged to return the
money, with another twenty for interest, and when he would take the law
of the innkeeper, was shown the bond duly cancelled, and was flogged
wellnigh to death for his pains.
So Hind rode the world up and down, redressing grievances like an
Eastern monarch, and rejoicing in the abasement of the evildoer. Nor
was the spirit of his adventure bounded by the ocean.
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