An Englishman's Adventure in the Coliseum.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 447, 19 February 1890, Page 3

An Englishman's Adventure in the Coliseum.

An English professor (says a London contemporary) was very fond of walking in the Coliseum after dark. He has an extremely valuable watch. People warned him he would be robbed if he persisted in his favourite moonlight rambles ; but he is enormously strong, a practised athlete; and he persisted in haunting the Coliseum until one night somebody, dressed as a monk, jostled him. His lirat thoughts were * A thief in disguise! my watch !’ He put his hand in his pocket. There was no watch ! He turned instantly in pursuit of the man ; seized and shook him; demanded his watch (in excellent English, of which the Roman probably knew no word), and, getting no satisfactory answer, shook his captive again, when something rolled down on the stones. With a final shake, and a powerful fling, the muscular professor sent the monk across the way, where he fell in aheap! Then the victor caught up the watch and ran for his hotel—ran because the thief might be armed, or might have confederates at hand. He rushed to his wife, telling her how he had rescued his valued watch from a thief. ‘ But you did nob take your watch with you,- she said. ‘Look at it, on the dressing table !’ He then found that his booty was not even like his own watch! The professor had been unintentionally playing the highwayman ! . He told a friend of mine he despaired of making his conduct look right to the authorities, so he left Rome by the earliest train in the morning, taking away the watch, I believe. -