 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Gemma Blythe. Malflanders by Daniel Defoe. Section 16. My comrade, having the brand of an old offender, was executed. The young offender was spared, having obtained reprieve, but lay starving a long while in prison. Till at last she got her name into what they call a circuit pardon, and so came off. This terrible example of my comrade frighted me heartily, and for a good while I made no excursions. But one night in the neighborhood of my governess's house they cried fire. My governess looked out, for we were all up, and cried immediately that such a gentle woman's house was all of a light fire atop, and so indeed it was. Here she gives me a job. Now child, she says, there is a rare opportunity for the fire being so near that you may go to it before the street is blocked up with the crowd. She presently gave me my cue. Go child, says she, to the house and run in and tell the lady, or anybody you see, that you come to help them, and that you came from such a gentle woman, that is one of her acquaintance farther up the street. She gave me the light cue to the next house, naming another name that was also an acquaintance of the gentle woman of the house. Away I went, and coming to the house, I found them all in confusion, you may be sure. I ran in, and finding one of the maids, Lord sweetheart, says I, how came this dismal accident? Where is your mistress? Anyhow, does she do? Is she safe, and where are the children? I come from madam, to help you. Away runs the maid. Madam, madam, says she, screaming as loud as she could yell. Here is a gentle woman, come from madam, to help us. The poor woman, half out of her wits, with a bundle under her arm, and two little children comes toward me. Lord, madam, says I, let me carry the poor children to madam. She desires you to send them. She'll take care of the poor lambs, and immediately I take one of them out of her hand, and she lifts the other up into my arms. Ah, do for God's sake, says she, carry them to her. Oh, thank her for her kindness. Have you anything else to secure, madam, says I? She'll take care of it. Oh, dear, I, says she, God bless her, and thank her. Take this bundle of plate, and carry it to her, too. Oh, she is a good woman. Oh, Lord, we are utterly ruined, utterly undone. And away she runs from me, out of her wits, and the maids after her. And away comes I with the two children in the bundle. I was no sooner got into the street, but I saw another woman come to me. Oh, says she, mistress, in a piteous tone. You will not let fall the child. Come, this is a sad time. Let me help you, and immediately lays hold of my bundle to carry it for me. No, says I, if you will help me take the child by the hand, and lead it for me, but to the upper end of the street. I'll go with you and satisfy you for your pains. She could not avoid going after what I said. But the creature in short was one of the same business with me, and wanted nothing but the bundle. However, she went with me to the door, for she could not help it. When we were come there I whispered her, go, child, said I, I understand your trade. You may meet with purchase enough. She understood me and walked off. I thundered at the door with the children, and as the people were raised before by the noise of the fire, I was soon let in. And I said, is Madam awake? Pray tell her that Mrs. desires the favour of her to take the two children in. Poor lady, she will be undone, their house is all of a flame. They took the children in very civilly, pity the family in distress, and awake am I with my bundle. One of the maids asked me if I was not to leave the bundle too. I said, no, sweetheart, tis to go to another place, it does not belong to them. I was a great way out of the hurry now, and so I went on, clear of anybody's inquiry, and brought the bundle of plate, which was very considerable, straight home, and gave it to my old governess. She told me she would not look into it, but made me go out again to look for more. She gave me the like cue to the gentle woman of the next house to that which was on fire, and I did my endeavour to go. But by this time the alarm of fire was so great, and so many engines playing, and the street so thronged with people, that I could not get near the house whatever I would do. So I came back again to my governesses, and taking the bundle up into my chamber, I began to examine it. It is with our that I dealt what a treasure I found there, tis enough to say that besides most of the family plate, which was considerable, I found a gold chain, an old fashioned thing, the locket of which was broken, so that I suppose it had not been used some years. But the gold was not the worst for that. Also a little box of burying rings, the lady's wedding ring, and some broken bits of old lockets of gold, a gold watch, and a purse with about twenty-four pounds value of old pieces of gold coin, and several other things of value. This was the greatest and the worst prize that ever I was concerned in, for indeed, though as I have said above I was hardened now beyond the power of all reflection in other cases, yet it really touched me to the very soul. When I looked into this treasure, to think of the poor, disconsolate gentlewoman who had lost so much by the fire besides, and who would think to be sure that she had saved her plate and best things, how she would be surprised and afflicted when she should find that she had been deceived, and should find that the person that took her children and her goods had not come as was pretended from the gentlewoman in the next street, but that the children had been put upon her without her own knowledge. I say, I confess the inhumanity of this action moved me very much, and made me relent exceedingly, and here stood in my eyes upon that subject, but with all my sense of it being cruel and inhuman, I could never find in my heart to make any restitution. The reflection wore off, and I began quickly to forget the circumstances that attended the taking them, nor was this all, for though by this job I was become considerably richer than before. Yet the resolution I had formally taken of leaving off this horrid trade when I had gotten a little more did not return, but I must still get further and more, and the avarice joined so much with the success that I had no more thoughts of coming into a timely alteration of life. Though without it I could expect no safety, no tranquility in the possession of what I had so wickedly gained, but the little more and a little more was the case still. At length, yielding to the importunities of my crime, I cast off all remorse and repentance and all the reflections on that head turned to no more than this, that I might perhaps come to have one booty more that might complete my desires. But though I certainly had that one booty, yet every hit looked towards another and was so encouraging to me to go on with the trade that I had no gust to the thought of laying it down. In this condition, hardened by success and resolving to go on, I fell into the snare in which I was appointed to meet with my last reward for this kind of life. But even this was not yet, for I met with several successful adventures, more in this way of being undone. I remained still with my governess, who was for a while really concerned for the misfortune of my comrade that had been hanged and who it seemed knew enough in this condition of my governess to have sent her in the same way, and which made her very uneasy indeed. She was in a very great fright. It is true that when she was gone and had not opened mouth to tell what she knew, my governess was easy as to that point and perhaps glad she was hanged, for it was in her power to have obtained a pardon at the expense of her friends. But on the other hand, the loss of her and the sense of her kindness in not making her market of what she knew moved my governess to mourn very sincerely for her. I comforted her as well as I could, and she in return hardened me to merit more completely the same fate. However, as I have said, it made me the more wary, and particularly I was very shy of shoplifting, especially among the mercers and drapers, who are a set of fellows that have their eyes very much about them. I made a venture or do among the lace folks and the milliners, and particularly at one shop where I got notice of two young women who were newly set up and had not been bred to the trade. There I think I carried off a piece of bone lace worth six or seven pounds and a paper of thread, but this was but once. It was a trick that would not serve again. It was always reckoned a safe job, when we heard of a new shop, and especially when the people were such as were not bred to shop. Such may depend upon it, that they will be visited once or twice at their beginning, and they must be very sharp indeed if they can prevent it. I made another venture or do, but they were but trifles too, though sufficient to live on. After this nothing considerable offering for a good while, I began to think that I must give over the trade in earnest, but my governess, who was not willing to lose me, and expected great things of me, brought me one day into company with a young woman and a fellow that went for her husband. Though as it appeared afterwards, she was not his wife, but they were partners. It seems in the trade they carried on, and partners in something else. In short, they robbed together, laid together, were taken together, and at last were hanged together. I came into a kind of league with these two, by the help of my governess, and they carried me out into three or four adventures, where I rather saw them commit some coarse and unhandy robberies, in which nothing but a great stock of impudence on their side, and gross negligence on the people's side who were robbed, could have made them successful. So I resolved from that time forward to be very cautious how I adventured upon anything with them, and indeed, when two or three unlucky projects were proposed by them, I declined the offer, and persuaded them against it. One time they particularly proposed robbing a watchmaker of three gold watches, which they had eyed in the daytime, and found the place where he laid them. One of them had so many keys of all kinds that he made no question to open the place where the watchmaker had laid them. And so we made a kind of appointment, but when I came to look narrowly into the thing, I found they proposed breaking open the house, and this as a thing out of my way I would not embark in, so they went without me. They did get into the house by main force, and broke up the locked place where the watches were, but found but one of the gold watches and a silver one, which they took, and got out of the house again very clear. But the family, being alarmed, cried out thieves, and the man was pursued and taken. The young woman had got off too, but unapply was stopped at a distance, and the watches found upon her. And thus I had a second escape, for they were convicted, and both hanged, being old offenders, though but young people. As I said before, that they robbed together, and laid together, so now they hanged together, and there ended my new partnership. I began now to be very wary, having so narrowly escaped scouring, and having such an example before me. But I had a new tempter, who prompted me every day. I mean my governess, and now a prize presented, which as it came by her management, so she expected a good share of the booty. There was a good quantity of Flanders lace lodged in a private house, where she had gotten intelligence of it, and Flanders lace being prohibited. It was a good booty to any custom house officer that could come at it. I had a full account from my governess, as well of the quantity, as of the very place where it was concealed. And I went to a custom house officer, and told him I had such a discovery to make to him of such a quantity of lace, if he would assure me that I should have my due share of the reward. This was so just an offer, that nothing could be fairer. So he agreed, and taking a constable and me with him, we beset the house. As I told him I could go directly to the place, he left it to me. And the hole being very dark, I squeezed myself into it with a candle in my hand, and so reached the pieces out to him. Daking care as I gave him some, so to secure as much about myself as I could conveniently dispose of, there was near 300 pounds worth of lace in the hole, and I secured about 50 pounds worth of it to myself. The people of the house were not owners of the lace, but a merchant who had entrusted them with it, so that they were not so surprised as I thought they would be. I left the officer overjoyed with his prize, and fully satisfied with what he had got, and appointed to meet him at a house of his own directing, where I came after I had disposed of the cargo I had about me, of which he had not the least suspicion. When I came to him he began to capitulate with me, believing I did not understand the right I had to his share in the prize, and would feign have put me off with 20 pounds, but I let him know that I was not so ignorant as he supposed I was, and yet I was glad too, that he offered to bring me to a certainty. I asked a hundred pounds, and he rose up to thirty pounds. I fell to eighty pounds, and he rose again to forty pounds. In a word, he offered fifty pounds that I consented, only demanding a piece of lace, which I thought came to about eight or nine pounds, as if it had been for my own wear, and he agreed to it. So I got fifty pounds and money, paid me that same night, and made an end of the bargain, nor did he ever know who I was, or where to inquire for me, so that if it had been discovered that part of the goods were embezzled, he would have no challenge upon me for it. I very punctually divided this spoil with my governess, and I passed with her from this time, for a very dexterous manager in the nicest cases. I found that this last was the best and easiest sort of work that was in my way, and I made it my business to inquire about prohibited goods, and after buying some, usually betrayed them, but none of these discoveries amount to do anything considerable. Not like that I related just now, but I was willing to act safe and was still cautious of running the great risks which the others did, and in which they miscarried every day. The next thing of moment was an attempt at a gentlewoman's good watch. It happened in a crowd, at a meeting-house, where I was in very great danger of being taken. I had full hold of her watch, but giving a great jostle, as if somebody had thrust me against her, and in the juncture giving the watch a fair pull. I found that it would not come, so I let it go that moment, and cried out as if I had been killed, that somebody had draught upon my foot, and that there were certainly pickpockets there, for somebody or other had given a pull to my watch. For you are to observe that on these adventures we always went very well dressed, and I had very good clothes on, and a gold watch by my side, as like a lady as other fold. I had no sooner said so, but the other gentlewoman cried out, a pickpocket too, for somebody, she said, had tried to pull her watch away. When I touched her watch, I was close to her, but when I cried out, I stopped as it were short, and the crowd bearing her forward a little, she made a noise too. But it was at some distance from me, so that she did not, in the least, suspect me, and when she cried out, a pickpocket, somebody cried, and here has been another this gentlewoman has been attempted to. At that very instance, a little farther in the crowd, and very luckily too, they cried out a pickpocket again, and really seized a young fellow in the very act. This, though unhappy for the wretch, was very opportunely for my case, though I had carried it off handsomely enough before. But now it was out of doubt, and all the loose part of the crowd ran that way, and the poor boy was delivered up to the rage of the street, which is a cruelty I need not describe, and which, however, they are always glad of, rather than to be sent to Newgate, where they lie off in a long time till they are almost perished, and sometimes they are hanged, and the best they can look for if they are convicted is to be transported. This was a narrow escape to me, and I was so frighted that I ventured no more gold watches a great while. There was indeed a great many concurring circumstances in this adventure, which assisted to my escape. But the chief was that the woman whose watch I had pulled at was a fool, that is to say, she was ignorant of the nature of the attempt, which one would have thought she should not have been, seeing she was wise enough to fasten her watch so it could not be slipped up. But she was in such a fright that she had not thought about her proper for the discovery, for she, when she felt the pull, screamed out and pushed herself forward, and put all the people about her into disorder, and said not a word of her watch or of a pickpocket for at least two minutes' time, which was time enough for me, and to spare. For as I had cried out behind her, as I have said, and bore myself back in the crowd as she bore forward, there were several people, at least seven or eight, the throng beings still moving on, that were got between me and her in that time, and then I, crying out a pickpocket, rather sooner than she, or at least as soon. She might as well be the person suspected, as I, and the people were confused in their inquiry, whereas, had she with the presence of mine needful on such an occasion, as soon as she felt the pull, not screamed out as she did, but turned immediately round and seized the next body that was behind her, and had infallibly taken me. This is a direction not of the kind is sought to the fraternity, but is certainly a key to the clue of a pickpocket's motions, and whoever can follow it will at certainly catch the thief, as he will be sure to miss if he does not. I had another adventure, which puts this matter out of doubt, and which may be an instruction for posterity in the case of a pickpocket, to give a short touch at her history. Though she had left off the trade, was, as I may say, born a pickpocket, and as I understand afterwards, had run through all the several degrees of that art, and yet had never been taken but once, when she was so grossly detected, that she was convicted and ordered to be transported. But being a woman of a rare tongue and with all having money in her pocket, she found means, the ship putting into Ireland for provisions, to get on shore there, where she lived and practiced her own trade for some years. When falling into another sort of bad company, she turned midwife and procurus, and laid a hundred pranks there, which she gave me a little history of incompetence between us as we grew more intimate, and it was to this wicked creature that I owed all the art and dexterity I arrived to, in which there were few that ever went beyond me, or that practiced so long without any misfortune. It was after those adventures in Ireland, and when she was pretty well known in that country, that she left Dublin and came over to England, where, the time of her transportation being not expired, she left her former trade for fear of falling into bad hands again, for then she was sure to have gone to Wreck. Here she set up the same trade she had followed in Ireland, in which she soon, by her admirable management and good tongue, arrived to the height which I have already described, and indeed began to be rich, though her trade fell off again afterwards, as I have hinted before. I mentioned thus much of the history of this woman here, the better to account for the concerns she had in the wicked life I was now leading, into all the particulars of which she led me, as if it were by the hand, and gave me such direction, and I so well followed them, that I grew the greatest artist of my time, and worked myself out of every danger with such dexterity, that when several more of my comrades ran themselves into Newgate presently, and by that time they had been half a year at the trade, I had now practiced upwards of five years, and the people at Newgate did not so much as know me, they had heard much of me indeed, and often expected me there, but I always got off, though many times in the extremest danger. One of the greatest dangers I was now in, was that I was too well known among the trade, and some of them whose hatred was owing rather to envy than any injury I had done them, began to be angry that I should always escape, when they were always catched and hurried to Newgate. These were they that gave me the name of Marl Flanders, for it was no more of affinity with my real name, or with any of the name I had ever gone by, than Black is of Kin to White, except that once, as before, I called myself Mrs. Flanders, when I sheltered myself in the mint, but that those rogues never knew, nor could I ever learn how they came to give me the name, or what the occasion of it was. I was soon informed that some of these who had gotten fast into Newgate had vowed to impeach me, and as I knew that two or three of them were but too able to do so, I was under a great concern about it, and kept within doors for a good while. But my governess, whom I always made partner in my success and who now played a sure game with me, for that she had a share of the gain and no share of the hazard. I say my governess was something impatient of my leading such a useless, unprofitable life, as she called it, and she laid a new contrivance for my going abroad, and this was to dress me up in men's clothes, and so put me into a new kind of practice. I was tall and personable, and a little too smooth-faced for a man, however. I seldom went abroad, but in the night it did well enough, but it was a long time before I could behave in my new clothes, I mean, as to my craft. It was impossible to be so nimble, so ready, so dexterous at these things, and a dress so contrary to nature, and I did everything clumsily. So I had neither the success nor the easiness of escape that I had before, and I resolved to leave it off, but that resolution was confirmed soon after by the following accident. As my governess disguised me like a man, so she joined me with a man, a young fellow that was nimble enough at his business, and for about three weeks we did very well together. Our principal trade was watching shopkeepers' counters and slipping off any kinds of goods we could see carelessly laid anywhere, and we made several good bargains, as we called them, at this work. And as we kept always together, so we grew more intimate, yet he never knew that I was not a man, nay, though I several times went home with him to his lodgings, according, as our business directed, and four or five times lay with him all night. But our design lay another way, and it was absolutely necessary to me to conceal my sex from him, as it feared afterwards. The circumstances of our living coming in late and having such and such business to do as required that nobody should be trusted with the coming into our lodgings were such as made it impossible to me to refuse lying with him, unless I would have owned my sex, and as it was, I effectually concealed myself. But his ill and my good fortune soon put an end to this life, which I must own I was sick of, too, on several accounts. We had made several prizes in this new way of business, but the last would be extraordinary. There was a shop in a certain street, which had a warehouse behind it that looked into another street, the house making the corner of the joining. Through the window of the warehouse we saw lying on the counter or showboard, which was just before it five pieces of silks. Besides other stuffs, and though it was almost dark, yet the people being busy in the foreshop with customers had not had time to shut up those windows or else had forgot it. This the young fellow was so overjoyed with that he could not restrain himself. It lay all within his reach, he said, and he swore violently to me that he would have it if he broke down the house for it. I dissuaded him a little, but saw there was no remedy. So he ran rashly upon it, slipped out a square of the sash window dexterously enough and without noise, and got out four pieces of the silks and came with them towards me, but was immediately pursued with a terrible clutter and noise. We were standing together indeed, but I had not taken any of the goods out of his hand when I said to him hastily, You are undone, fly, for God's sake. He ran like lightning, and I too, but the pursuit was hotter after him because he had the goods than after me. He dropped two of the pieces, which stopped them a little, but the crowd increased and pursued us both. They took him soon after with the other two pieces upon him and then the rest followed me. I ran for it and got into my governess's house where there some quick-eyed people followed me to warmly as to fix me there. They did not immediately knock at the door, by which I got time to throw off my disguise and dress me in my own clothes besides when they came there. My governess, who had her tail ready, kept my door shut and called out to them and told them there was no man coming there. The people affirmed there did a man come in there and swore they would break open the door. My governess, not at all surprised, spoke calmly to them, told them they should very freely come and search her house if they should bring a constable and let in none but such as the constable would admit, for it was unreasonable to let in a whole crowd. This they could not refuse, though they were a crowd, so a constable was fetched immediately and she very freely opened the door. The constable kept the door and the men he appointed searched the house. My governess going with them from room to room. When she came to my room she called to me and said aloud, Cousin, pray open the door. Here's some gentleman that must come and look into your room. I had a little girl with me, which was my governess's grandchild, as she called her, and I bade her open the door and there's that I at work with a great litter of things about me as if I had been at work all day, being myself quite undressed, with only night-glows on my head and a loose morning gown wrapped about me. My governess made a kind of excuse for their disturbing me, telling me partly the occasion of it, and that she had no remedy but to open the doors to them and let them satisfy themselves for all she could say to them would not satisfy them. I sat still and bid them search the room if they pleased, for if there was anybody in the house I was sure they were not in my room and as for the rest of the house I had nothing to say to that. I did not understand what they looked for. Everything looked so innocent and too honest about me that they treated me similar than I expected, but it was not till they had searched the room to a nicety, even under the bed, in the bed and everywhere else where it was possible anything could be hid. When they had done this and could find nothing they asked my pardon for troubling me and went down. When they had thus searched the house from bottom to top and then top to bottom I could find nothing. They appeased the mob pretty well but they carried my governess before the justice. Two men swore that they saw the man whom they pursued go into her house. My governess rattled and made a great noise that her house should be insulted and that she should be used thus for nothing. That if a man did come in he might go out again presently for all she knew. For she was ready to make oath that no man had been within her doors all that day as she knew of. And that was very true indeed. That it might be indeed that as she was above stairs any fellow in a fright might find the door open and run in for shelter when he was pursued. But that she knew nothing of it. And if it had been so he certainly went out again and perhaps at the other door for she had another door into the alley and so had made his escape and cheated them all. This was indeed probable enough and the justice satisfied himself with giving her an oath that she had not received or admitted any man into her house to conceal him or protect or hide him from justice. This oath she might justly take and did so and so she was dismissed. It is easy to judge what a fright I was in upon this occasion and it was impossible for my governess ever to bring me to dress in that disguise again. For as I told her I should certainly betray myself. My poor partner in this mischief was now in a bad case for he was carried away before my Lord Mayor and by his worship committed to a new gate and the people who took him were so willing as well as able to prosecute him that they offered themselves to enter into recognizances to appear at the sessions and pursue the charge against him. However, he got his indictment deferred upon promise to discover his accomplices and particularly the man that was concerned with him in his robbery and he failed not to do his endeavour. For he gave in my name whom he called Gabriel Spencer which was the name I went by to him and here appeared the wisdom of my concealing my name and sex from him which if he had ever known I had been undone. He did all he could to discover this Gabriel Spencer. He described me. He discovered the place where he said I lodged and in a word all the particulars that he could of my dwelling. But having concealed the main circumstances of my sex from him I had a vast advantage and he never could hear of me. He brought two or three families into trouble by his endeavouring to find me out but they knew nothing of me any more than that I had a fellow with me that they had seen but knew nothing of and as for my governess though she was the means of his coming to me yet it was done at second hand and he knew nothing of her. This turned to his disadvantage for having promised discoveries but not being able to make it good. It was looked upon as trifling with the justice of the city and he was the more fiercely pursued by the shopkeepers who took him. I was, however, terribly uneasy all this while and that I might be quite out of the way I went away from my governesses for a while but not knowing whither to wander I took a maid servant with me and took the stagecoach to Dunstable to my old landlord and landlady where I had lived so handsomely with my Lancashire husband. Here I told her a formal story that I expected my husband every day from Ireland and that I had sent a letter to him that I would meet him at Dunstable at her house and that he would certainly land if the wind were there in a few days so that I was come to spend a few days with them till he should come for he was either come post or in the Westchester coach. I knew not which but whichever it was he would be sure to come to that house to meet me. My landlady was mighty glad to see me and my landlord made such a stir with me that if I had been a princess I could not have been better used and here I might have been welcome a month or two if I had thought fit but my business was of another nature I was very uneasy though so well disguised that it was scarce possible to detect me lest this fellow should somehow or other find me out and though he could not charge me with this robbery having persuaded him not to venture and having also done nothing in it myself but run away yet he might have charged me with other things and have bought his own life at the expense of mine this filled me with horrible apprehensions I had no recourse no friend, no confidant but my old governess and I knew no remedy but to put my life in her hands and so I did for I let her know where to send to me and had several letters from her while I stayed here some of them almost scared me out of my wits but at last she sent me the joyful news that he was hanged which was the best news to me that I had heard a great while I had stayed here five weeks and lived very comfortably indeed the secret anxiety of my mind accepted but when I received this letter I looked pleasantly again and told my landlady that I had received a letter from my spouse in Ireland that I had the good news of his being very well but had the bad news that his business would not permit him to come away so soon as he expected and so I was like to go back again without him my landlady complimented me upon the good news, however that I had heard he was well for I have observed madam, said she you hadn't been so pleasant as you used to be you have been overhead in ears and care for him I dare say, says the good woman it is easy to be seen there is an alteration in you for the better, says she well I am sorry the Esquire can't come yet, says my landlord I should have been heartily glad to have seen him but I hope when you have certain news of his coming you'll take a step hither again madam says he you shall be very welcome whenever you please to come end of section sixteen all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org this reading by Krista Girl Mall Flanders by Daniel Defoe section seventeen with all these fine compliments reparted and I came merry enough to London and found my governess as well pleased as I was and now she told me she would never recommend any partner to me again for she always found, she said that I had the best luck when I ventured by myself and so indeed I had for I was seldom in any danger when I was by myself or if I was I got out of it with more dexterity than when I was entangled with the dull measures of other people who had perhaps less forecast and were more rash and impatient than I for though I had as much courage to venture as any of them yet I used more caution before I undertook a thing and had more presence of mind when I was to bring myself off I have often wondered even in my own hardiness another way that when all my companions were surprised and fell so suddenly into the hands of justice and that I so narrowly escaped yet I could not all this while enter into one serious resolution to leave off this trade and especially considering that I was now very far from being poor that the temptation of necessity which is generally the introduction of all such wickedness was now removed for I had near five hundred pounds by me and ready money on which I might have lived very well if I had thought fit to have retired but I say I had not so much as the least inclination to leave off no, not so much as I had before when I had but two hundred pounds beforehand and when I had no such frightful examples before my eyes as these were from hence this evident to me that when once we are hardened in crime no fear can affect us no example give us any warning I had indeed one comrade whose fate went very near me for a good while though I wore it off too in time that case was indeed very unhappy I had made a prize of a piece of very good Damascus in a Mercer's shop and went clear off myself but had conveyed the piece to this companion of mine when we went out of the shop and she went one way and I went another we had not been long out of the shop but the Mercer missed his piece of stuff and sent his messengers one one way and one another and they presently seized her that had the piece with the Damascus upon her as for me I had very likely stepped into a house where there was a lace chamber up one pair of stairs and had the satisfaction or the terror indeed I was looking out of the window upon the noise they made and seeing the poor creature dragged away in triumph to the justice who immediately committed her to Newgate I was careful to attempt nothing in the lace chamber but tumbled their goods pretty much to spend time then bought a few yards of edging and paid for it and came away very sad-hearted indeed for the poor woman who was in tribulation for what I only had stolen Here again my old caution stood me in good stead namely that though I often robbed with these people yet I never let them know who I was or where I lodged nor could they ever find out my lodging though they often endeavored to watch me to it they all knew me by the name of Maul Flanders though even some of them rather believed I was she than knew me to be so my name was public among them indeed but how to find me out they knew not nor so much as how to desert my quarters whether they were at the east end of the town or the west and this wariness was my safety upon all these occasions I kept close a great while upon the occasion of this woman's disaster I knew that if I should do anything that should miscarry and should be carried to prison she would be there and ready to witness against me and perhaps save her life at my expense I considered that I began to be very well known by name with the old Bailey though they did not know my face and that if I should fall into their hands I should be treated as an old offender and for this reason I was resolved to see what this poor creature's fate should be before I started abroad though several times in her distress I conveyed money to her for her relief at length she came to her trial she pleaded she did not steal the thing but that one Mrs. Flanders as she heard her called for she did not know her gave the bundle to her after they came out of the shop and bade her carry it home to her lodging they asked her where this Mrs. Flanders was but she could not produce her neither could she give the least account of me and the Mercer's men swearing positively that she was in the shop when the goods were stolen they immediately missed them and pursued her and found them upon her there upon the jury brought her in guilty but the court considering that she was really not the person that stole the goods an inferior assistant and that it was very possible she could not find out this Mrs. Flanders meaning me though it would save her life which indeed was true I say considering all this they allowed her to be transported which was the utmost favor she could obtain but Mercer told her that if she could in the meantime produce the scent Mrs. Flanders they would intercede for her pardon that is to say if she could find me out and hand me she should not be transported this I took care to make impossible to her and so she was shipped off in pursuance of her sentence a little while after I must repeat it again that the fate of this poor woman troubled me exceeding me and I began to be very pensive knowing that I was really the instrument of her disaster but the preservation of my own life which was so evidently in danger took off all my tenderness and seeing that she was not put to death I was very easy at her transportation because she was then out of the way of doing me any mischief whatever should happen the disaster of this woman was some months before that of the last recited story and was indeed partly occasioned of my governess proposing to dress me up in men's clothes that I might go about unobserved as indeed I did but I was soon tired of that disguise as I have said for indeed it exposed me to too many difficulties I was now easiest to all fear of witnesses against it for all those that had either been concerned with me or that knew me by the name of Malflanders were either hanged or transported and if I should have had the misfortune to be taken I might call myself anything else as well as Malflanders and no old sins could be placed into my account so I began to run a tick again with the more freedom and several successful adventures I made though not such as I had made before we had at that time another fire happened not a great way off from the place where my governess lived and I made an attempt there as before but as I was not soon enough before the crowd of people came in and could not get to the house I aimed at instead of a prize I got a mischief and put a period to my life and all my wicked doings together for the fire being very furious and the people in a great fright in removing their goods and throwing them out of windows I wenched from out of a window through a feather bed just upon me it is true the bed being soft it broke no bones but as the weight was great and made greater by the fall it beat me down and laid me dead for a while nor did the people concern themselves much to deliver me from it nor to recover me at all but I lay like one dead and neglected a good while to somebody going to remove the bed out of the way helped me up it was indeed a wonder the people in the house had not thrown other goods out after it which might have fallen upon it and then I had been inevitably killed but I was reserved for further afflictions this accident however spoiled my market for that time and I came home to my governess very much hurt and bruised to the last degree and it was a good while before she could set me upon my feet again it was now a merry time of the year and Bartholomew fair had begun I had never made any walks that way nor was the common part of the fair of much advantage to me but I took a turn this year into the cloisters and among the rest I fell into one of the rathling shops it was a thing of no great consequence to me nor did I expect to make much of it I came a gentleman extremely well dressed and very rich and as his frequent talked to everybody in those shops he signalled me out and was very particular with me first he told me he would put in for me to raffle and did so and some small matter coming to his lot he presented it to me I think it was a feather moth then he continued to keep talking to me with a more than common appearance of respect but still very civil and much like a gentleman he held me in talk so long till at last he drew me out of the rathling place to the shop door and then to walk in the cloister still talking of a thousand things personally without anything to the purpose at last he told me that without compliment he was charmed with my company and asked if I durst trust myself in a coach with him he told me he was a man of honour and would not offer anything to me unbecoming him as such I seemed to decline at a while but suffered myself to be impotuned a little and then yielded I was at a loss in my thoughts to conclude at first what this gentleman designed but I found afterwards he had had some drink in his head and that he was not very unwilling to have some more he carried me in the coach to the spring garden at night's bridge where we walked in the gardens and he treated me very handsomely but I found he drank very freely he pressed me also to drink and I declined it hitherto he kept his word with me and offered me nothing amiss we came away in the coach again and he brought me into the streets and by this time it was near ten o'clock at night and he stopped the coach at a house where it seems he was acquainted and where they made no scruple to show us upstairs into a room with a bed in it at first I seemed to be unwilling to go up but after a few words I came into that too being willing to see the end of it and in hope to make something of it at last as for the bed etc I was not much concerned about that much here he began to be a little freer with me than he had promised and I by little and little yielded to everything so that in a word he did what he pleased with me I need say no more all this while he drank freely too and about one in the morning he went into the coach again the air and the shaking of the coach made the drink he had get more up in his head than it was before and he grew uneasy in the coach and was for acting over again what he had been doing before but as I thought my game now secure I resisted him and brought him to be a little still which had not lasted five minutes but he felt fast asleep I took this opportunity to search him to a nicety I took a gold watch with a silk purse of gold his fine full bottom periwig and silver fringed gloves his sword and fine snuff box and gently opening the coach door stood ready to jump out while the coach was going on but the coach stopped in the narrow street beyond Temple Bar to let another coach pass I got softly out fastened the door again and gave my gentlemen and the coach the slick both together and never heard more of them this was an adventure indeed unlooked for and perfectly undesigned by me though I was not so past the merry part of life as to forget how to behave when a fox so blinded by his appetite should not know an old woman from a young I did not indeed look so old as I was by 10 or 12 years yet I was not a young lunch of 17 and it was easy enough to be distinguished there is nothing so absurd so subfeeting so ridiculous as a man heated by wine in his head and wicked gusts in his inclination together he is in the possession of two devils at once and can no more govern himself by his reason than a milking grind without water his vice tramples upon all that was in him that had any good in it if any such thing there was nay his very sense is blinded by its own rage and he acts absurdities even in his views such as drinking more when he is drunk already picking up a common woman without regard to what she is or who she is whether sound or rotten clean or unclean whether ugly or handsome whether old or young and so blinded is not really to distinguish such a man is worse than a lunatic prompted by his vicious corrupted head he no more knows what he is doing than this wretch of mine knew when I picked his pocket of his watch these are the men of whom Solomon says they go like ox to the slaughter till the dart strikes through their liver an admirable description by the way of the foul disease which is poisonous deadly contagion mingling with the blood whose center or foundation is in the liver and once by the swift circulation of the whole mass that dreadful nauseous plague strikes immediately through his liver and his spirits are infected his vitals stabbed through as with the dart it is true this poor unguarded wretch was in no danger for me though I was greatly apprehensive at first of what danger I might be in from him but he was really to be pitied in one respect that he seemed to be a good sort of man in himself a gentleman that had no harm in his design a man of sense and a fine behavior a comely handsome person a sober solid countenance a charming beautiful face and everything that could be agreeable only had unhappily had some drink the night before had not been in bed as he told me when we were together was hot and his blood fired with wine and in that condition his reason as it were asleep had given him up as for me my business was his money and what I could make of him and after that if I could have found out any way to have done it I would have sent him safe home to his house and to his family for it was ten to one but he had an honest, virtuous wife and innocent children that were anxious for his safety and would have been glad to have gotten him home and have taken care of him till he was restored to himself and then with what shame and regret would he look back upon himself how would he reproach himself with associating himself with the horror picked up in the worst of all holes of all the town how would he be trembling for fear he had got the pox or fear a dart had struck through his liver and hate himself every time he looked back upon the madness and brutality of his debauch how would he if he had any principles of honour as I verily believe he had I say how would he abhor the thought of giving any ill distemper if he had it as for all he knew he might to his modest and virtuous wife soaring the contagion in the lifeblood of his posterity would such gentlemen but consider the contemptible thoughts which the very women they are concerned with in such cases as these have of them it would be a surfeit to them as I said above they value not the pleasure they are raised by no inclination to the man the passive jade thinks of no pleasure but the money and when he is as it were drunk in the ecstasies of his wicked pleasure her hands are in his pockets searching for what she can find there and of which he can no more be sensible in the moment of his poly that he can forethink of it when he goes about it I knew a woman that was so dexterous with a fellow who indeed deserved no better usage while he was busy with her another way conveyed his purse with twenty guineas in it out of his fob pocket where he had put it for fear of her and put another purse with gilded counters in it into the room of it after she had done he says to her now had she picked my pocket she gested with him and told him she supposed he had not much to lose he put his hand to his fob and with his fingers felt that his purse was there which fully satisfied him and so she brought off his money and this was a trade with her she kept a sham gold watch that is a watch of silver guilt and a purse of counters in her pocket to be ready on all such occasions and I doubt not practiced it with success I came home with this last booty to my governess and really when I told her the story it so affected her that she was hardly able to forebear tears to know how such a gentleman ran a daily risk of being undone every time a glass of wine got into his head but as to the purchase I got and how entirely I stripped him she told me it pleased her wonderfully nay child says she the usage may, for ought I know do more to reform him than all the sermons that ever he will hear in his life and if the remainder of the story be true so it did I found the next day she was wonderful inquisitive about this gentleman the description I had given her of him his dress his person his face everything incurred to make her think of a gentleman whose character she knew and family too she mused a while an eye going still on with the particulars she starts up I'll lay a hundred pounds I know the gentleman I'm sorry you do says I for I would not have him exposed on my account in the world he has had injury enough already by me and I would not be instrumental to do him anymore no no says she I will do him no injury I assure you but you may let me satisfy my curiosity a little for if it is he I warrant you I find it out I was a little startled at that and told her with an apparent concern in my face that by the same rule he might find me out and then I was undone she returned warmly why do you think I will betray you child no no says she not for all he is worth in the world I have kept your counsel in worse things than these sure you may trust me in this so I said no more at that time she laid her scheme another way and without appointing me of it but she was resolved to find it out if possible so she goes to a certain friend of hers who was acquainted in the family that she guessed at and told her friend she had some extraordinary business with such a gentleman who by the way was no less than a baronette and have a very good family and that she knew not how to come at him without somebody to introduce her her friend promised her very readily to do it and accordingly goes to the house to see if the gentleman was in town the next day she come to my governess and tells her that sir was at home but that he had met with a disaster and was very ill and there was no speaking with him what disaster says my governess hastily as if she was surprised at it why says her friend he had been at Hampstead to visit a gentleman of his appointees and as he came back again and having got a little drink too as they suppose the rose abused him and he's very ill robbed says my governess what did they take from him why says her friend they took his gold watch and his gold snuff box his fine periwig and what money he had in his pocket which was considerable to be sure for sir never goes without a purse of guineas about him sure why says her friend I find you don't know sir why he is as civil a gentleman there is not a finer man nor a sober, graver, modest person in the whole city he abhor such things there's no reason for him to go to the house to see his wife and tell her he has been robbed that's an old sham a thousand such tricks are put upon the poor women every day poor such things there's nobody that knows him will think such a thing of him well well says my governess that's none of my business if it was I warrant I should find there was something of that kind in it your modest men in common opinion are sometimes no better than other people only they keep a better character or if you please are the better hypocrites no no says her friend is no hypocrite he is really an honest soker gentleman and he has certainly been robbed nay says my governess it may be he has it is no business of mine I tell you I only want to speak with him my business is of another nature but says her friend let your business be of what nature it will you cannot see him yet for he is not fit to be seen for he is very ill and bruised very much I my governess nay then he has fallen into bad hands to be sure and then she asked gravely pray where is he bruised why in the head says her friend and one of his hands and his face for they used him barbarously poor gentleman says my governess I must wait then till he recovers and adds I hope it will not belong for I want very much to speak with him away she comes to me and tells me the story I have found out your fine gentleman and a fine gentleman he buzz says she but mercy on him he is in a sad pickle now I wonder what the devil you have done to him why you have almost killed him I looked at her with disorder enough I killed him says I you must mistake the person I am sure I did nothing to him he was very well when I left him only drunk and fast asleep I know nothing of that says she but he is in a sad pickle now and so she told me all that her friend had said to her well then says I he fell into bad hands after I left him for I am sure I left him safe enough about 10 days after or a little more my governess goes again to her friend to introduce her to this gentleman she had inquired other ways in the meantime and found that he was about again if not abroad again so she got leave to speak with him she was a woman of admirable address and wanted nobody to introduce her she told her tale much better than I shall be able to tell it for her or she was a mistress of her tongue as I have said already she told him that she came through a stranger with a single design of doing him a service and he should find she had no other end in it that as she came purely on so friendly an account she begged promise from him that if he did not accept what she should officially propose he would not take it ill that she had meddled with what was not her business she assured him that as what she had to say was a secret that belonged to him only so whether he accepted her offer or not it should remain a secret to all the world unless he exposed it himself nor should his refusing her service in it make her so little show her respect as to do him the least injury so that he should be entirely in liberty to act as he thought fit he looked very shy at first and said he knew nothing that related to him that required much secrecy that he had never done any man any wrong and cared not what anybody might say of him that it was no part of his character to be unjust to anybody nor could he imagine in what any man could render him any service but that if it was so disinterested a service as she said he would not take it ill from anyone that they should endeavor to serve him and so as it were left her a liberty either to tell him or not to tell as she thought fit she found him so perfectly indifferent that she was almost afraid to enter into the point with him but however after some other circumlocutions she told him that by a strange and unaccountable accident she came to have a particular knowledge of the late unhappy adventure he had fallen and that in such a manner that there was nobody in the world but herself and him that were acquainted with it no not the very person that was with him he looked a little angrily at first what adventure said he why said she of your being robbed coming from hamstead sir I should say be not surprised sir says she that I am able to tell you every step you took from the cloister in sniffield to the spring garden at night's bridge and thence to the in the strand and how you were left to sleep in the coach afterwards I say let not this surprise you for sir I do not come to make a booty of you I ask nothing of you and I assure you the woman that was with you knows nothing who you are and never shall and yet perhaps I may serve you further still for I did not come barely to let you know that I was informed as if I wanted a bribe to conceal them assure yourself sir said she that whatever you think fit to do or say to me it shall be all the secret as it is much as if I were in my grave he was astonished at her discourse and said gravely to her madam you are a stranger to me but it is very unfortunate that you should be let into the secret of the worst action of my life and the thing that I am so justly ashamed of that the only satisfaction of it to me was that I thought it was known only to God in my own conscience pray sir says she do not reckon the discovery of it to me to be any part of your misfortune it was a thing I believe you were surprised into and perhaps the woman used some art to prompt you to it however you will never find any just cause said she to repent that I came to hear of it nor can your own mouth be more silent in it than I have been and ever shall be well says he but let me do some justice to the woman too whoever she is I do assure you she prompted me to nothing she rather declined to me it was all my own folly and madness that brought me into it all I and brought her into it too I must give her her do so far as to what she took from me I could expect no less from her in the condition I was in and to this hour I do not know whether she robbed me or the coachman if she did it I forgive her and I think all gentlemen that do so should be used in the same manner but I am more concerned for some other things than I am for all that she took from me my governess now began to come into the whole matter and he opened himself freely to her first she said to him in answer to what he had said about me I am glad sir you are so just to the person that you were with I assure you she is a gentle woman and no woman of the town and however you prevailed with her so far as you did I am sure just not her practice you ran a great venture indeed sir but if that be any part of your care I am persuaded you may be perfectly easy for I dare assure you no man has touched her for you since her husband and he has been dead now almost eight years it appeared that this was his grievance and that he was in a very great fright about it however when my governess said this to him he was very well pleased and said well madam to be playing with you if I was satisfied of that I should not so much value what I lost for as to that the temptation was great and perhaps she was poor and wanted it if she had not been poor sir says my governess I assure you she would never have yielded to you and as her poverty first prevailed with her to let you do as you did so the same poverty prevailed with her herself at last when she saw you were in such a condition that if she had not done it perhaps the next coachman might have done it well says he much good may it do her I say again all the gentlemen that do so ought to be used in the same manner and then they would be cautious of themselves I have no more concern about it but on the score which you hinted at before madam here he entered into some freedoms with her on the subject of what passed between us which are not so proper for a woman to write and the great terror that was upon his mind with relation to his wife for fear he should have received any injury from me and she communicated further and asked her at last if she could not procure him an opportunity to speak with me my governess gave him further assurances of my being a woman clear from any such thing and he was as entirely safe in that respect as he was with his own lady but as we're seeing she said it might be of dangerous consequence but however that she would talk with me and let him know my answer using at the same time some arguments to persuade him not to desire it and that it could be of no service to him seeing she hoped he had no desire to renew a correspondence with me and that on my account it was a kind of putting my life in his hands he told her he had a great desire to see me that he would give her any assurances that were in his power not to take any assurances of me and that in the first place he would give me a general release from all demands of any kind she insisted how it might tend to a further divulging secret and might in the end be injurious to him and treating him not to press for it so at length he desisted they had some discourse upon the subject of the things he had lost and he seemed to be very desirous of his gold watch and told her if she could procure that for him it would cost as much for it as it was worth she told him she would endeavour to procure it for him and leave the valuing it to himself accordingly the next day she carried the watch and he gave her 30 guineas for it which was more than I should have been able to make of it though it seems it cost much more he spoke something of his periwig which it seems cost him 3 scored guineas and his snuffbox and in a few days more she carried them too very much and he gave her 30 more the next day I sent him his fine sword and cane gratis and demanding nothing of him but I had no mind to see him unless it had been so that he might be satisfied I knew who he was which he was not willing to then he entered into a long talk with her of the manner how she came to know all this matter she formed a long tale of that part how she had it from one that I had told the whole story to and that was to help me dispose of the goods and this confidant brought the things to her she being by profession a pawnbroker and she hearing of his worship's disaster guessed at the thing in general that having gotten the things into her hands she had resolved to come and try as she had done she then gave him repeated assurances that it would never go out of her mouth and though she knew the woman very well yet she had not let her know meaning me anything of it that is to say who the person was which by the way was false but however it was not to his damage for I never opened my mouth of it to anybody I had a great many thoughts in my head about seeing him again and was often sorry that I had refused it I was persuaded that if I had seen him and let him know that I knew him I should have made some advantage of him and perhaps have had some maintenance from him and though it was a life wicked enough yet it was not so full of danger as this I was engaged in however those thoughts wore off and I declined to see him again for that time but my governess saw him often and he was very kind to her giving her something almost every time he saw her one time in particular she found him very merry and as she thought he had some wine in his head and he pressed her again very earnestly to let him see that woman that as he said had bewitched him so that night my governess who was from the beginning for my seeing him told him he was so desirous of it that she could almost yield to it if she could prevail upon me adding that if he would please to come to her house in the evening she would endeavour it upon his repeated assurances of forgetting what was passed accordingly she came to me and told me all the discourse in short she soon biased me to consent in a case which I had some regret in my mind for thinking before so I prepared to see him I dressed me to all the advantage possible I assure you and for the first time used a little art I say for the first time for I had never yielded to the baseness of paint before having always had vanity enough to believe I had no need of it at the hour appointed he came and as she observed before so it was plain still that he had been drinking though very far from what we call being in drink he appeared exceeding pleased to see me and entered into a long discourse with me upon the old affair I begged his pardon very often for my share of it protested I had not any such design when first I met him that I had not gone out with him but that I took him for a very civil gentleman and that he made me so many promises of offering no uncivility to him he alleged the wine he drank and that he scarce knew what he did and that if it had not been so I should never have let him take the freedom with me that he had done he protested to me that he never touched any woman but me since he was married to his wife and it was a surprise on him complimented me upon being so particularly agreeable to him and the like and talked so much of that kind till I found he had talked himself almost into a temper to do the same thing over again but I took him up short I protested I had never suffered any man to touch me since my husband died which was near eight years he said he believed it to be so truly and added that madam had intimated as much to him and that it was his opinion of that part which made his desire to see me again and that since he had once broken upon his virtue with me and found no ill consequences he could be safe in venturing there again and so in short it went on to what I expected and to what will not bear relating my old governess had foreseen it as well as I therefore led him into a room which had not a bed in it and yet had a chamber within it which had a bed wither we withdrew for the rest of the night and in short after some time being together he went to bed and lay there all night I withdrew became again undressed in the morning before it was day and lay with him the rest of the time thus you see having committed a crime once is a sad handle to the committing of it again whereas all the regret and reflections bear off when the temptation renews itself had I not yielded to see him again the corrupt desire in him had worn off and is very probable he had never fallen into it with anybody else as I really believed he had not done before when he went away I told him I hoped he was satisfied he had not been robbed again he told me he was satisfied in that point and could trust me again and putting his hand in his pocket gave me five guineas I had gained it that way for many years I had several visits of the like kind for him but he never came into a settled way of maintenance which was what I would have been best pleased with once indeed he asked me how I did to live I answered him pretty quick that I assured him I had never taken that course that I took with him but then indeed I worked at my needle and could just maintain myself at some time it was as much as I was able to do and I shifted hard enough he seemed to reflect upon himself that he should be the first person to lead me into that which he assured me he never intended to do himself and it touched him a little he said that he should be the cause of his own sin and mine too he would often make just reflections also upon the crime itself and upon the particular circumstances of it with respect to himself how wine introduced the inclinations how the devil led him to the place where he rejected tempt him and he made the moral always himself when these thoughts were upon him he would go away and perhaps not come again in a month's time or longer but then as the serious part wore off the lewd part would wear in and then he came prepared for the wicked part thus we lived for some time thought he did not keep as they call it yet he never failed doing things that were handsome and sufficient to maintain me without working which was better without following my old trade but this affair had its end too for after about a year I found that he did not come so often as usual and at last he left it off altogether without any dislike to bidding adieu and so there was an end of that short scene in my life which added no great store to me only to make more work for repentance however during this interval I can find myself pretty much at home at least being thus provided for I made no adventures no not for a quarter of a year after he'd left me but then finding the fun to fail and being loathed to spend upon the main stock I began to think of my old trade and to look abroad into the street again and my first step was lucky enough end of section 17 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org this reading by Chris the Girl Malflanders by Daniel Defoe section 18 I had dressed myself up in a very mean habit for as I had several shapes to appear in I was now in an ordinary stuffed gown a blue apron and a straw hat and I placed myself at the door of the three cups in in St. John Street there were several carriers used the inn and the stage coaches for Barnett for Totteridge and other towns that way stood always in the street in the evening when they prepared to set out so that I was ready for anything that offered for either one or other the meaning was this people come frequently with bundles or small parcels to those inns and call for such carriers or coaches as they want to carry them into the country and there generally attend women porters wives or daughters ready to take in such things for their respective people that employ them it happened very oddly that I was standing at the inn gate and a woman that had stood there before and which was the porters wife belonging to the Barnett stage coach having observed me asked if I waited for any of the coaches I told her yes I waited for my mistress that was coming to go to Barnett she asked me who was my mistress and I told her any madam's name that came next to me but as it seemed I happened upon a name a family of which name lived at Hadley just beyond Barnett I said no more to her a good while but by and by somebody calling her at her door a little way off she desired me that if anybody called for the Barnett coach I would step and call her at the house which it seems was an alehouse I said yes very readily and away she went she was no sooner gone becomes a wench and a child puffing and sweating and asks for the Barnett coach I answered presently here do you belong to the Barnett coach says she yes sweetheart what do you want I want room for two passengers says she where are they sweetheart said I here's this girl pray let her go into the coach says she and I'll go and fetch my mistress make haste then sweetheart says I for we may be full else the maid had a great bundle under her arm so she put the child into the coach and I said you would best put your bundle into the coach too no says she I'm afraid somebody should slip it away from the child give to me then said I and I'll take care of it do then says she and be sure you take of it I'll answer for it said I if it were good for twenty pound value there take it then says she and away she goes as soon as I had got the bundle and the maid was out of sight I goes on towards the alehouse where the porter's wife was so that if I had met her I had then only been going to give her the bundle and to call her to her business and could stay no longer but as I did not meet her I walked away and turning into charter house lane then crossed into Bartholomew clothes so into Little Britain and through the blue coat hospital into Newgate Street to prevent my being known I pulled off my blue apron and wrapped the bundle in it which before was made up in a piece of painted calico and very remarkable I also wrapped up my straw hat in it and so put the bundle upon my head and it was very well that I did thus for coming through the blue coat hospital who should I meet but the wench that had given me the bundle to hold it seems she was going with her mistress whom she had been gone to fetch to the Barnett Coaches I saw she was in haste and I had no business to stop her so away she went and I brought my bundle safe home to my governess there was no money nor plate or jewels in the bundle but a very good suit of Indian Damasque a gown and a petticoat a laced head and ruffles a very good Flanders lace and some linen and other things such as I knew very well the valua this was not indeed my own invention but was given me by one that had practised it with success and my governess liked it extremely and indeed I tried it again several times though never twice near the same place for the next time I tried it in White Chapel just by the corner of Petticoat Lane where the Coaches stand that go out to Stratford and Bow and that side of the country and another time at the flying horse without Bishopgate where the Chesting Coaches then lay had always the good luck to come off with some booty another time I placed myself at a warehouse by the water side where the coasting vessels from the north come such as from Newcastle upon Tyne Sunderland and other places here the warehouse is being shut comes a young fellow with a letter and he wanted a box and a hamper that was come from Newcastle upon Tyne I asked him if he had the marks of it so he shows me the letter by virtue of which he was to ask for it and which gave an account of the contents the box being full of linen and the hamper full of glassware I read the letter and took care to see the name and the marks the name of the person that sent the goods the name of the person that they were sent to then I bade the messenger come in the morning for that the warehousekeeper would not be there at any more that night Away went I and getting materials in a public house I wrote a letter from Mr. John Richardson of Newcastle to his dear cousin Jimmy Cole in London and the account that he sent by such a vessel for I remembered all the particulars to a title so many pieces of Huckaback linen so many L's of Dutch Holland and the like in a box and a hamper of flint glasses for Mr. Hensel's glass house and that the box was marked I, C, Number 1 and the hamper was directed by a label on the courting about an hour after I came to the warehouse found the warehousekeeper and had the goods delivered me without any screwball the value of the linen being about 22 pounds I could fill up this whole discourse with the variety of such adventures which daily invention directed to and which I managed with the utmost dexterity and always a success at length, as when does the pitcher come safe home that goes so very often to the well I fell into some small broils which though they could not affect me fatally yet made me known which was the worst thing next to being found guilty that could befall me I had taken up the disguise of a widow's dress it was without any real design in view but only waiting for anything that might offer as often I did it happened that while I was going along the street in Covent Garden there was a great cry of stop thief, stop thief some artists had it seems put a trick upon a shopkeeper and being pursued one of them fled one way and some another and one of them was they said dressed up in widow's weeds upon which the mob gathered about me and some said I was the person others said no immediately came the Mercer's journeyman and he swore aloud I was the person and so seized on me however when I was brought back by the mob to the Mercer's shop the master of the house said freely that I was not the woman that was in his shop and would have let me go immediately but another fellow said gravely pray stay till Mr meaning the journeyman comes back for he knows her so they kept me by force near half an hour they had called a constable and he stood in the shop as my jailer and in talking with the constable I inquired where he lived and what trade he was the man not apprehending in the least what happened afterwards readily told me his name and trade and where he lived and told me as a jest that I might be sure to hear of his name when I came to the old Bailey some of the servants likewise used me saucily and had much ado to keep their hands off me the master indeed was similar to me than they but he would not yet let me go though he owned he could not say I was in his shop before I began to be a little surly with him and told him I hoped he would not take it ill if I made myself amends upon him in a more legal way another time and desired I might send for friends to see me have right done me no he said he could give no such liberty I might ask it when I came before the justice of peace and seeing I threatened him he would take care of me in the meantime and would lodge me safe in Newgate I told him it was his time now to mine by and by and governed my passion as well as I was able however I spoke to the constable to call me a porter which he did and then I called for pen, ink and paper but they would let me have none I asked the porter his name and where he lived and the poor man told it me very willingly I bait him observe and remember how I was treated there that he saw I was detained there by force I told him I should want his evidence in another place and it should not be the worst for him to speak the porter said he would serve me with all his heart but madam says he let me hear them refuse to let you go then I may be able to speak the plainer with that I spoke aloud to the master of the shop and said sir you know in your own conscience that I am not the person you look for and that I was not in your shop before therefore I demand that you detain me here no longer or tell me the reason of your stopping me the fellow grew surlier upon this than before he said he would do neither till he thought fit very well said I to the constable and to the porter you will be pleased to remember this gentleman another time the porter said yes madam and the constable began not to like it and would have persuaded the Mercer to dismiss him and let me go since, as he said he owned I was not the person good sir said the Mercer to him tauntingly are you a justice of peace or a constable I charged you with her do you do your duty the constable told him a little moved but very handsomely I know my duty and what I am sir I doubt you hardly know what you are doing they had some other hard words and in the meantime the journeyman impudent and unmanly to the last degree used me barbarously and one of them, the same that first seized upon me pretended he would search me and began to lay hands on me I spitten his face called out to the constable and baint him to take notice of my usage and pray Mr. Constable said I ask that villains name pointing to the man the constable reproved him decently told him that he acknowledged I was not the person that was in his shop and says the constable I am afraid your master is bringing himself and me too into trouble if this gentle woman comes to prove who she is and where she was and it appears that she is not the woman you pretend to damn her says the fellow again with an impudent hardened face she is the lady you may depend upon it I'll swear she is the same body that was in the shop you shall hear more of it when Mr. William and Mr. Anthony those were other journeymen come back they will know her again as well as I just as the insolent rogue was talking thus to the constable comes back Mr. William and Mr. Anthony as he called them and a great rabble with them bringing along with them the true widow that I was pretended to be and they came sweating and blowing into the shop and with a great deal of triumph the master and the most butchery manner up toward the master who was in the back shop and cried out aloud here's the widow sir we have catch her at last what do you mean by that says the master why we have her already there she sits says he and Mr says he can swear this is she the other man whom they called Mr. Anthony replied Mr may say what he will and swear what he will but this is the woman the remnant of satin she stole I took it out of her clothes with my own hand I sat still now and began to take a better heart but smiled and said nothing the master looked pale the constable turned about and looked at me let him alone Mr. Constable said I let him go on the case was plain and could not be denied so the constable was charged with the right thief and the Mercer told me very civilly he was sorry for the mistake and hoped I would not take it ill so many things of this nature put upon them every day that they could not be blamed for being very sharp in doing themselves justice not take it ill sir said I how could I take it well if you had dismissed me when your insolent fellow seized on me in the street and brought me to you and when you yourself acknowledged I was not the person I would have put it by and not taken it ill because of the many ill things I believe you have put upon you daily but your treatment of me since has been insufferable and especially that of your servant and will have reparation for that then he began to parlay with me said he would make me any reasonable satisfaction and would feign have had me tell him what it was I expected I told him that I should not be my own judge the law should decide it for me and as I was to be carried before magistrate I should let him hear there what I had to say he told me there was no occasion to go before the justice now I was at liberty to go where I pleased and so calling to the constable for I was discharged the constable said calmly to him sir you asked me just now if I knew whether I was a constable or justice and bade me do my duty and charged me with this gentle woman as a prisoner now sir I find you do not understand what is my duty for you would make me a justice indeed but I must tell you it is not in my power I may keep a prisoner when I am charged with him but is the law and the magistrate alone that can discharge that prisoner therefore it is a mistake sir I must carry her before a justice now whether you think well of it or not the Mercer was very high with the constable at first but the constable happening to be not a hired officer but a good substantial kind of man I think he was a corn handler and a man of good sense stood to his business would not discharge me without going to a justice of the peace and I insisted upon it too when the Mercer saw that well says he to the constable you may carry her where you please I have nothing to say to her but sir says the constable you will go with us I hope for it is you that charged me with her no not I says the Mercer I tell you I have nothing to say to her but pray sir do says the constable I desire to view for your own sake for the justice can do nothing without you for the fellow says the Mercer go about your business I tell you I have nothing to say to the gentle woman I charge you in the king's name to dismiss her sir says the constable I find you don't know what it is to be constable I beg of you don't oblige me to be rude to you I think I need not you were rude enough already says the Mercer no sir says the constable I am not rude you have broken the peace in bringing an honest woman out of the street when she was about her lawful occasion confining her in your shop and ill using her here by your servants and now can you say I am rude to you I think I am civil to you I am civil to you in not commanding or charging you in the king's name to go with me and charging every man I see that passes your door to aid and assist me in carrying you by force this you cannot but know I have power to do and yet I forbear it and once more entreat you to go with me well he would not for all this and gave the constable ill language however the constable kept his temper it would not be provoked and then I put in and said come Mr. Constable let him alone you have to fetch him before a magistrate I don't fear that but there's the fellow says I he was the man that seized on me as I was innocently going along the street and you were a witness of the violence with me since give me leave to charge you with him and carry him before the justice yes madam says the constable and turning to the fellow come young gentleman says he to the journeyman you must go along with us I hope you are not above the constable's power though your master is condemned thief and hung back then looked at his master as if he could help him and he like a fool encouraged fellow to be rude and he truly resisted the constable and pushed him back with a good force when he went to lay hold on him at which the constable knocked him down and called out for help and immediately the shop was filled with people and the constable seized the master and man and all his servants the first ill consequence of this fray was that the woman they had taken off and got clear away in the crowd and to other that they had stopped also whether they were really guilty or not that I can say nothing to by this time some of his neighbors having come in and upon inquiry seeing how things went had endeavored to bring the hot-brained Mercer to his senses and he began to be convinced that he was in the wrong and so at length we went all very quietly before the justice with a mob of about five hundred people at our heels and all the way I went I could hear the people ask what was the matter and other reply and say a Mercer had stopped a gentle woman instead of a thief and had afterwards taken the thief and now the gentle woman had taken the Mercer and was carrying him before the justice this pleased the people strangely and made the crowd increase and they cried out as they went which is the rogue, which is the Mercer and especially the women then when they saw him they cried out that's he, that's he and every now and then came a good dab of dirt at him and thus we marched a good while till the Mercer thought fit to desire the Constable to call a coach to protect himself from the rabble so we rode the rest of the way the Constable and I and the Mercer and his man when we came to the justice which was an ancient gentleman in Bloomsbury the Constable giving first a summary account of the matter the justice made me speak and tell what I had to say and first he asked my name which I was very loathed to give but there was no remedy so I told him my name was Mary Flanders that I was a widow, my husband being a sea captain died on a voyage to Virginia and some other circumstances I told which he could never contradict and that I lodged at present in town with such a person naming my governess but that I was preparing to go over to America where my husband's effects lay and that I was going that day to buy some clothes to put myself into second morning but had not yet been in any shop when that fellow pointing to the Mercer's dream came rushing upon me with such fury is very much frightened me and carried me back to his master's shop where though his master acknowledged I was not the person yet he would not dismiss me but charged a Constable with me then I proceeded to tell how the journeyman treated me how they would not suffer me to send for any of my friends how afterwards they found the real thief and took the very goods they had lost upon her and all the particulars as before then the Constable related his case his dialogue with the Mercer about discharging me and at last his servants refusing to go with him when he had charged him with him and his master encouraging him to do so and at last his striking the Constable and the like all as I have told it already the Justice then heard the Mercer and his man the Mercer indeed made a long harangue of the great loss they have daily by lifters and thieves that it was easy for them to mistake and that when he found it he would have dismissed me etc as above as to the journeyman he had very little to say but that he pretended other of the servants told him that I was really the person upon the whole the Justice first of all told me very courteously I was discharged that he was very sorry that the Mercer's man should in his eager pursuit have so little discretion as to take up an innocent person for a guilty person that if he had not been so unjust as to detain me afterward he believed I would have forgiven the first affront that however it was not in his power to award me any reparation for anything other than by openly reproving them which he should do but he supposed to have such methods as the law directed in the meantime he would bind him over but as to the breach of the peace committed by the journeyman he told me he should give me some satisfaction for that for he should commit him to Newgate for assaulting the Constable and for assaulting me also accordingly he sent the fellow to Newgate for that assault and his master gave bail and so we came away but I had the satisfaction of seeing the mob wait upon them both as they came out hallowing and throwing stones as they rode in and so I came home to my governess after this hustle coming home and telling my governess the story she falls a laughing at me why are you merry says I the story has not so much laughing ruminant as you might imagine I'm sure I've had a great deal of hurry in fright too with a pack of ugly robes laugh says my governess I laugh child to see what a lucky creature you are why this job will be the best bargain you made in your life if you manage it well I warned you says she you shall make the Mercer pay you 500 pounds for damages besides what you shall get out of the journeyman I had other thoughts of the matter than she had and especially because I had given in my name to the justice of peace and I knew that my name was so well known among the people at Hicks Hall the old Bailey and such places that if this cause came to be tried openly and my name came to be inquired into no court would give much damages for the reputation of a person of such character however I was obliged to begin a prosecution in form and accordingly my governess found me out a very creditable sort of man to manage it being an attorney of very good business and of a good reputation and she was certainly in the right of this for had she employed a petty frogging hedge solicitor or a man not known and not in good reputation I should have brought it to but little I met this attorney all the particulars of large as they are recited above and he assured me it was a case as he said that would very well support itself and that he did not question but that a jury would give very considerable damages on such an occasion so taking his full instructions he began the prosecution and the Mercer being arrested gave bail a few days after his giving bail he comes with his attorney to my attorney to let him know that he desired to accommodate the matter that his client, meaning me had a sharp provoking tongue and that I used them ill, jiving at them and jeering them even while they believed me to be the very person and that I had provoked them and the like my attorney managed as well on my side made them believe I was a widow of fortune that I was able to do myself justice and had great friends to stand by me too who had all made me promise to sue to the utmost and that if it cost me a thousand pounds I would be sure to have satisfaction for that the affronts I had received were insufferable however they brought my attorney to this that he promised he would not blow the coals that if I inclined to accommodation he would not hinder me and that he would rather persuade me to peace than to war for which they told him he should be no loser all which he told me very honestly and told me that if they offered him any bribe I should certainly know it but upon the whole he told me very honestly that if I would take his opinion he would advise me to make it up with them for that as they were in a great fright and were desirous above all things to make it up and knew that let it be what it would they would be allotted to bear all the costs of the suit he believed they would give me freely more than any jury or court of justice would give upon a trial I asked him what he thought they would be brought to he told me he could not tell us to that but he would tell me more when I saw him again some time after this they came again to know if he had talked with me he told them he had not so averse to an accommodation as some of my friends were who resented the disgrace offered me and set me on that they blowed the coals in secret prompting me to revenge or do myself justice as they called it so that he could not tell what to say to it he told them he would do his endeavour to persuade me but he ought to be able to tell me what proposal they made they pretended they could not make any proposal because it might be made use of against them and he told them that by the same rule he could not make any offers for that might be pleaded by the argument of what damages a jury might be inclined to give however after some discourse and mutual promises that no advantage should be taken on either side by what was transacted then or at any other of those meetings they came to a kind of a treaty but so remote and so wide from one another then nothing could be expected from it for my attorney demanded 500 pounds and charges and they offered 50 without charges so they broke off and the Mercer proposed to have a meeting with me myself and my attorney agreed to that very readily my attorney gave me notice to come to this meeting in good clothes and with some state that the Mercer might see I was something more than I seemed to be that time they had me accordingly I came in a new suit of second morning according to what I had said at the justices I set myself out too as well as a widow's dress in second morning would admit my governess also furnished me with a good pearl necklace that shut in behind with a locket of diamonds which she had in pawn and I had a very good figure and as I stayed till I was sure they were come I came in a coach to the door with my maid with me when I came into the room the Mercer was surprised he stood up and made his bow which I took a little notice of and but a little and went and sat down where my attorney had pointed me to sit for it was his house after a little while the Mercer said he did not know me again and began to make some compliments his way I told him I believed he did not know me at first and that if he had I believed he would not have treated me as he did he told me he was very sorry for what had happened and that it was to testify the willingness he had to make all possible reparation that he had appointed this meeting that he hoped I would not carry things to extremity which might be not only too great a loss to him but might be the ruin of his business and shop in which case I might have the satisfaction of repaying an injury with an injury ten times greater but that I would then get nothing whereas he was willing to do me any justice that was in his power without putting himself or me to the trouble or charge of a suit at law I told him I was glad to hear him talk so much more like a man of sense than he did before that it was true acknowledgement in most cases of affronts was counted reparation sufficient but this had gone too far to be made up so that I was not revengeful nor did I seek his ruin or any man else's but that all my friends were unanimous not to let me so far neglect my character as to adjust a thing of this kind without a sufficient reparation of honour that to be taken up for a thief was such an indignity as could not be put up that my character was above being treated so by any that knew me but because of my condition of a widow I had been for some time careless of myself and negligent of myself I might be taken for such a creature but that for the particular usage I had from him afterwards and then I repeated all as before it was so provoking I had scarce patience to repeat it well he acknowledged all and was my tumble indeed he made proposals very handsome he came up to a hundred pounds and to pay all the law charges and added that he would make me a present of a very good suit of clothes I came down to three hundred pounds and I demanded that I should publish an advertisement of the particulars in the common newspapers this was a clause he never could comply with however at last he came up by good management of my attorney to a hundred and fifty pounds and a suit of black silk clothes and there I agree and as it were at my attorney's request complied with it he paying my attorney's bill and charges and gave us a good supper into the bargain when I came to receive the money I brought my governess with me dressed like an old duchess and a gentleman very well dressed who he pretended courted me but I called him cousin and the lawyer was only to hint privately to him that this gentleman courted the widow he treated us handsomely indeed he paid the money cheerfully enough so that it cost him two hundred pounds in all or rather more at our last meeting when all was agreed the case of the journeyman came up and the Mercer begged very hard for him told me he was a good man that had kept a shop of his own and been in good business had a wife and several children and was very poor that he had nothing to make satisfaction with but he should come to beg my pardon on his knees if I desired it as openly as I pleased I had no spleen at the saucy rogue nor were his submissions anything to me since there was nothing to be got by him so I thought it was as good to throw that in generously as not so I told him I did not desire the ruin of any man and therefore at his request I would forgive the wretch it was below me to seek any revenge when we were at supper he brought the poor fellow in to make acknowledgement which he would have done with as much mean humility as his offence was with insulting hotness and pride in which he was an instance of a complete baseness of spirit impious cruel and relentless when uppermost and in prosperity abject and low spirited when down in affliction however I abated his cringes told him I forgave him and desired he might withdraw as if I did not care for the sight of him though I had forgiven him I was now in good circumstances indeed if I could have known my time for leaving off and my governess often said I was the richest of the trade in England and so I believe I was had seven hundred pounds by me in money beside clothes, rings, some plate and two gold watches and all of them stolen for I had innumerable jobs besides these I have mentioned oh had I even now had the grace of repentance I had still leisure to have looked back upon my follies and have made some reparation but the satisfaction I was to make for the public mischiefs I had done was yet left behind and I could not forbear going abroad again as I called it now then any more I could when my extremity gave me out for bread End of section 18