Now, I beg to inform you that I think it next to impossible for four horses, properly directed, to be stopped by less than four men.

To that number I shall probably yield; to a less number I shall most assuredly give nothing but bullets.

You understand me ?" The post-boys grinned, touched their hats; and Mauleverer slowly continued,-- "If, therefore,--mark me!--one, two, or three men stop your horses, and I find that the use of your whips and spurs are ineffectual in releasing the animals from the hold of the robbers, I intend with these pistols--you observe them!---to shoot at the gentlemen who detain you; but as, though I am generally a dead shot, my eyesight wavers a little in the dark, I think it very possible that I may have the misfortune to shoot you, gentlemen, instead of the robbers! You see the rascals will be close by you, sufficiently so to put you in jeopardy, unless indeed you knock them down with the but-end of your whips.

I merely mention this, that you may be prepared.

Should such a mistake occur, you need not be uneasy beforehand, for I will take every possible care of your widows; should it not, and should we reach Salthill in safety, I intend to testify my sense of the excellence of your driving by a present of ten guineas apiece! Gentlemen, I have done with you.