1
A BOOK OF SCOUNDRELS
by CHARLES WHIBLEY
To the Greeks FOOLISHNESS
I desire to thank the Proprietors of the `National Observer,' the `New Review,' the `Pall Mall Gazette,' and `Macmillan's Magazine,' for courteous permission to reprint certain chapters of this book.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CAPTAIN HIND
MOLL CUTPURSE AND JONATHAN WILD
I. MOLL CUTPURSE
II. JONATHAN WILD
III. A PARALLEL
RALPH BRISCOE
GILDEROY AND SIXTEEN-STRING JACK
I. GILDEROY
II. SIXTEEN-STRING JACK
III. A PARALLEL
THOMAS PURENEY
SHEPPARD AND CARTOUCHE
I. JACK SHEPPARD
II. LOUIS-DOMINIQUE CARTOUCHE
III. A PARALLEL
VAUX
GEORGE BARRINGTON
THE SWITCHER AND GENTLEMAN HARRY
I. THE SWITCHER
II. GENTLEMAN HARRY
III. A PARALLEL
DEACON BRODIE AND CHARLES PEACE
I. DEACON BRODIE
II. CHARLES PEACE
III. A PARALLEL
THE MAN IN THE GREY SUIT
MONSIEUR L'ABB<E'>
INTRODUCTION
There are other manifestations of greatness than to relieve suffering or to wreck an empire. Julius C<ae>sar and John Howard are not the only heroes who have smiled upon the world. In the supreme adaptation of means to an end there is a constant nobility, for neither ambition nor virtue is the essential of a perfect action. How shall you contemplate with indifference the career of an artist whom genius or good guidance has compelled to exercise his peculiar skill, to indulge his finer aptitudes? A masterly theft rises in its claim to respect high above the reprobation of the moralist. The scoundrel, when once justice is qu