The Adventures and Vagaries of Twm Shôn Catti: Descriptive of Life in Wales: Interspersed with PoemsPrichard, T. J. Llewelyn (Thomas Jeffery Llewelyn)
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The Adventures and Vagaries of Twm Shôn Catti: Descriptive of Life in Wales: Interspersed with Poems
Prichard, T. J. Llewelyn (Thomas Jeffery Llewelyn)
Jones, Thomas, approximately 1530-approximately 1620 -- Fiction
The name of this terrific freebooter, who had among many other
descriptions of persons, robbed half the farmers in the country, and was
supposed to have committed more than one murder, had its full effect on
Twm. He instantly resigned the Parson’s purse, assuring him it was all
he possessed, and begged that he would allow him to retain one guinea;
these terms the robber in a manner, acceded to, giving him two guineas,
but in return, insisting on having his horse and great coat, which Twm
gave up. Dio the devil, then insolently bade him good morning, rode off
towards Lampeter, holding the parson’s horse by the bridle.
No sooner had the highwayman disappeared, than Twm was struck with a full
conviction of the folly of the fears he had entertained, which, by
depressing his mind, he thought, led to confusedly yielding his property
too easily: vowing to himself, after some reflection, that if possessed
of a pair of pistols, no highwayman in the world should make him stand.
His thoughts taking their course through this channel, wandered and
diverged, till his mind rested on new, but perilous prospects. “What a
life,” thought he, “this Dio the devil leads—a gentleman of the road—the
terror of wealthy scoundrels, who are themselves the terror of the
hapless poor that are starved into crime—famed, feared, and maintained at
the general cost, while many an honest fool toils like the galled
drudge-horse, crawls through the world half starved, and is despised for
his meanness.” Thus he pondered and soliloquised, and after being silent
for a while, he continued “Let others do as they please, but for me, I
have no taste for buffetings or drudgery, and had I but a good horse and
pistols—” At this moment a countryman was about to pass him on the road,
in whose hand he recognized his bundle, containing his feminine attire,
which in his terror he had dropped, and it rolled from the side of the
road, it seems, into the ditch, previous to the halt of the highwayman.
Twm immediately claimed his property, but the fellow seemed but little
disposed to attend to him, until vehemently insisting on his right, he
evinced an inclination to battle with him; when satisfied with this very
convincing sort of logic, the clown made restitution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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