Paul Clifford — Volume 07Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
General
Paul Clifford — Volume 07
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
Brigands and robbers -- Fiction
"Ah! Mauleverer might have been a deuced clever fellow--if he had liked
it!"
The earl was accustomed to show as a curiosity a ring of great value,
which he had received in rather a singular manner. One morning a packet
was brought him which he found to contain a sum of money, the ring
mentioned, and a letter from the notorious Lovett, in which that person
in begging to return his lordship the sums of which he had twice assisted
to rob him, thanked him, with earnest warmth, for the consideration
testified towards him in not revealing his identity with Captain
Clifford; and ventured, as a slight testimony of respect, to inclose the
aforesaid ring with the sum returned.
About the time Mauleverer received this curious packet, several anecdotes
of a similar nature appeared in the public journals; and it seemed that
Lovett had acted upon a general principle of restitution,--not always, it
must be allowed, the offspring of a robber's repentance. While the idle
were marvelling at these anecdotes, came the tardy news that Lovett,
after a single month's sojourn at his place of condemnation, had, in the
most daring and singular manner, effected his escape. Whether, in his
progress up the country, he had been starved or slain by the natives, or
whether, more fortunate, he had ultimately found the means of crossing
seas, was as yet unknown. There ended the adventures of the gallant
robber; and thus, by a strange coincidence, the same mystery which
wrapped the fate of Lucy involved also that of her lover. And here, kind
reader, might we drop the curtain on our closing scene, did we not think
it might please thee to hold it up yet one moment, and give thee another
view of the world behind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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