"There is nothing like going
the whole hog," he repeated, "and if ever I had been a highwayman,
I would have done so; I should have thought myself all the more
safe; and, moreover, shouldn't have despised myself. To curry
favour with those you are robbing, sometimes at the expense of your
own comrades, as I have known fellows do, why, it is the greatest--
"
"So it is," interposed my friend the postillion, who chanced to be
present at a considerable part of the old ostler's discourse; "it
is, as you say, the greatest of humbug, and merely, after all, gets
a fellow into trouble; but no regular bred highwayman would do it.
I say, George, catch the Pope of Rome trying to curry favour with
anybody he robs; catch old Mumbo Jumbo currying favour with the
Archbishop of Canterbury and the Dean and Chapter, should he meet
them in a stage-coach; it would be with him, Bricconi Abbasso, as
he knocked their teeth out with the butt of his trombone; and the
old regular-built ruffian would be all the safer for it, as Bill
would say, as ten to one the Archbishop and Chapter, after such a
spice of his quality, would be afraid to swear against him, and to
hang him, even if he were in their power, though that would be the
proper way; for, if it is the greatest of all humbug for a
highwayman to curry favour with those he robs, the next greatest is
to try to curry favour with a highwayman when you have got him, by
letting him off.
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