Do as you will with them; I have too little to lose to make a moan were you to rob me of all." "We rob not the poor; we only rob the rich--those arrogant, purse-proud rogues who batten and fatten on what they wring from the poor," answered, in quick, scornful accents, the man who appeared to be the leader of this little band.

"On them we have scant pity.

They have but stolen, in cunning though lawful fashion, what we wrest from them, lawlessly it may be, yet with as good a right in the sight of the free heavens as any they practise.

But we filch not gold nor goods from the poor, the thrifty, the sons of toil; nay, there be times when we restore to these what has been drained from them by injustice and tyranny.

We be not the common freebooters of the road, who set on all alike, and take human life for pure love of killing.