"WELL, what are you doing, my man?"
A voice boomed from above Stephen Bunce. Slyly Bunce looked up and saw a gentleman seated on a handsome horse, then suddenly he threw himself to the ground and lay there, apparently listening to something that came from within the earth itself.
The gentleman was amazed and moved closer to the recumbent figure. There seemed to be no reaction. "Answer me, you fool!"
"Shh…!"
"What is it? What are you hearing?"
A blissful expression came over Stephen Bunce's face. "Fairies. I can hear fairies. It's the most beautiful sound I ever heard. Such sweet music!"
Well in our day and age we would expect nothing but laughter from the gentleman, but this was 1707 and in 1707 people in Essex believed in house elves, imps and fairies of all sorts. The gentleman wanted to know more. He could not resist it. He dismounted from his horse and gave Bunce his horse to hold, while he put his own ear to the ground. Of course there was nothing!
Nothing, that is, except the sound of the thump of horse's hooves galloping away. Bunce was riding the gentleman's horse to Romford.
A highwayman always knows a fine horse when he sees one. So for that matter does an innkeeper. The landlord of the inn where Bunce stopped recognised the black stallion as soon as he saw it. "That's Mr. Bartlett's horse."
"So it is, so it is. Mr Bartlett has asked me to offer him as a pledge for he's asking you kindly, sir, if you could lend him 15 guineas. It's a little matter of a debt of honour at Ingatestone, you understand."
The landlord understood quickly enough. Mr Bartlett was a notorious gambler. The horse was a good bargain in the circumstances and he handed over 15 guineas in a leather bag to Bunce without a protest.
The highwayman, for a moment, had trouble keeping his face straight but he marched away happily with his loot. It was as well he was not there when Mr Bartlett finally arrived at the inn. Sadly we have no record of what he said when the innkeeper told him: "There was no need to have left the horse. I would have lent you the money anyway…"
