Everyone loves a romantic rogue whose exciting exploits feature a cheeky
disregard for the law, narrow escapes and lots of love interest. Even at
the height of highway robbery activity in the eighteenth century, it was
thought that the death penalty was too harsh for these wayward
scoundrels. There was the ever-courteous Claude Duval, the epitome of
gentlemanliness; the infamous Katherine Ferrers, who was the inspiration
for the film The Wicked Lady; Dick Turpin, the most famous highwayman of
them all; and lesser-known characters such as Tom Rowland, who dressed
as a woman to avoid capture. All these and more form an entertaining
volume that follows the mounted thief in their endless match against the
law and a death by public hanging.