Elizabeth Town Gazette

A merchant who was travelling a short time since on horse-back, between Saumur and Tours, in France, stopped at night-fall, at an inn in a little village; he ordered supper, and entered into conversation with two persons of respectable appearance, to whom he incautiously expressed that his purse was well lined. On the following morning, before it was perfectly light, he left the inn, and proceeded on his journey. He had not gone far before he was overtaken by his two companions of the preceding evening, who accosted him, and when they had proceeded to a very solitary place, seized and offered him his choice, whether he would be stabbed to death, or thrown into the river Loire. The merchant prayed them to spare his life, but in vain: the robbers were determined, and he at length preferred the latter alternative. The robbers bound him, and flung him into the river, where he soon disappeared, and the robbers carried off his horse and his money. In the mean time the merchant was not dead: he was borne along by the current, but he contrived to keep his head above water; and at length, as day advanced, he was discovered and dragged to shore, when he warmed himself, and dried his clothes. Not far off was an inn; the master of it was at the door, and seeing a stranger in tears he inquired the cause. On hearing the merchant's story he doubted not that the robbers were two men who were at that moment drinking in his house. The merchant recognized them. The gendarmes were summoned, and the robbers were seized at the very moment when, believing their victim at the bottom of the river, they were dividing their booty. Proceedings have been commenced against them.

Lond. paper.