The Oxford stage coach was pillaged in broad day after a bloody fight.

[330] A waggon laden with fifteen thousand pounds of public money was stopped and ransacked.

As this operation took some time, all the travellers who came to the spot while the thieves were busy were seized and guarded.
When the booty had been secured the prisoners were suffered to depart on foot; but their horses, sixteen or eighteen in number, were shot or hamstringed, to prevent pursuit.

[331] The Portsmouth mail was robbed twice in one week by men well armed and mounted.

[332] Some jovial Essex squires, while riding after a hare, were themselves chased and run down by nine hunters of a different sort, and were heartily glad to find themselves at home again, though with empty pockets.