Before I leave these people, I think it proper to acquaint my readers
that their folly was not to be extinguished by a single execution. There
were a great many young fellows of the same stamp, who were fools enough
to forfeit their lives upon the same occasion. However, the humour did
not run very long, though some of them were impudent enough to murder a
keeper or two afterwards. Yet in the space of a twelvemonth, the whole
nation of Blacks was extinguished, and these country rakes were
contented to play the fool upon easier terms. The last blood that was
shed on either side was that of a keeper's son at Old Windsor, whom some
of these wise people fired at as he looked out of the window, by which
means they drew on their own ruin and that of several numerous families
by which the country was put in such terror that we have heard nothing
of them since, though this Act of Parliament[44] as I shall tell you,
has been by construction extended to some other criminals, who were not
strictly speaking of the same kind as the Waltham Blacks.