Tom Blood, Highwayman — Gardner Francis Fox

The men behind bars in Dublin Gaol were innocent of wrongdoing -- hostages, who would die like common felons at the end of the hangman's rope, unless Tom Blood could carry out his mission.

In England, in 1669 a wave of sympathy had arisen for the people of Ireland, hunted and hounded as they had been for the past hundred years by Tudor greed and Cromwellian fanaticism, and Tom Blood found friends there who were sympathetic to his cause. But all their assistance could not save the Dublin prisoners if Tom Blood were late for his appointment.

The self-styled highwayman rode swiftly through the drizzling English countryside as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland made preparations to return to Dublin to superintend the executions.