Let me but get my girth tightened and we may soon be out of danger's way.' 'I have had to do,' said Saxon, as we rode onwards, 'with many gentry of this sort, with Albanian brigands, the banditti of Piedmont, the Lanzknechte and Freiritter of the Rhine, Algerine picaroons, and other such folk.

Yet I cannot call to mind one who hath ever been able to retire in his old age on a sufficient competence.

It is but a precarious trade, and must end sooner or later in a dance on nothing in a tight cravat, with some kind friend tugging at your legs to ease you of any breath that you might have left.' 'Nor does that end all,' I remarked.
'No.

There is Tophet behind and the flames of hell.

So our good friends the parsons tell us.