Highway Robbery and Attempted Murder

On Sunday night a disgraceful outrage was committed near Bristol. A young man, named Roberts, from London, was passing, about nine o'clock in the evening, down a lane leading to Redcatch Farm, when he saw two men sitting on a stile, and wished them "Good night;" but they made him no reply. In a minute or two he heard them behind him, and almost instantaneously he received a blow with a heavy bludgeon across the back of his head, which felled him to the ground. One of the villains them knelt upon his chest, stuffed his mouth full of mud, and throttled him, threat­ening him at the same time with instant death if he dared to make the least noise. They then beat his head against the road, plundering his pocket of his watch and all his money, and threw him into a pond. The cold water revived him, and lie succeeded in getting to the bank, and scrambling out, gave the alarm, but the robbers had decamped.