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, these thoughts wore off, and I declined seeing 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, from the beginning, was for my seeing him, told him, as he was so desirous of it, that she could almost yield to it, if she could pre-ney I had gained in that way for many years. vail with 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. before it was day, and lay with him the rest of the time. Thus you see having committed a crime once, is a second handle to the committing of it again. All the the reflections wear off when the temptation renews itself: had I not yielded to see him again, the corrupt desire in him had worn off, and it is very probable he had never fallen into it with anybody else, as I really believe he had not done before. Accordingly she came to me and told me all the discourse; in short, she soon pressed me to consent in a case which I had some regret in my mind for declining before; so I prepared to see him. I dressed me to all 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 being what we call in drink. He appeared exceedingly 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 in 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 incivility to me. He alleged the wine he drank, and that he scarce knew what he did, and that if he had not been so, I should never have found him take the freedom with me that he had done. He protested to me that he had never touched any woman but me since he was married to his wife, and it was a surprise to him. Then he 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 in 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 him desire to see me; and that since he had once broken in upon his virtue with me, and found no ill consequen es, 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, and therefore led him into a room which had not a bed in it, and yet had a chamber within it which had a bed, whither 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, but came again undressed When he went away I told him I hoped he was satisfied that 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, which was the first mo I had several visits of the like kind from him, but he never came into a settled way of maintenance, which was what I should 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 that indeed I worked at my needle and could just maintain myself; that sometimes 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 had never intended 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, and found out an object to 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 would come prepared for the wicked part. That we lived for some time; and though he did not keep me, as they call it, yet he never failed doing things that were handsome, and sufficient to maintain me without working, and, 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, or bidding adieu; and so there was an end of that short scene of life, which added no great store to me, only to make more work for repentance. However, during this interval I confined myself pretty much at home; at least, being thus provided for, I made no adventure, no, not for a quarter of a year after he left me; but then finding the fund fail, and being loath 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. Now I dressed myself up in a very mean habit, for, as I had several shapes to appear in, I was now in an ordinary stuff gown, a blue apron and a straw hat; and I placed myself at the door of the Three Cups Inn in St John street. There were several carriers used the inn, and the coaches for Barnet, 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 and 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 porter's wife belonging to the Barnet 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 Barnet. She asked me who was my mistress, and I told her any madam's name that came next me. But as it seemed I happened apon a name, a family of which name lived at Hadley, just beyond Barnet. I said no more to her, or she to me a good while; but by and by somebody calling her at a door a little way off, she desired me that if anybody called for the Barnet coach I would step and call her at the house, which it seems was an ale-house; I said yes very readily, and away she went. She was no sooner gone, but comes a wench and a child, puffing and sweating, and asks for the Barnet coach. I answered presently, here. Do you belong to the Barnet coach ?" says she.-"Yes, sweetheart," said I; "what do ye 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 had best put your bundle into the coach too."-" No," says she, "I am afraid somebody should slip it away from the child."—"Give it me, then," said I; "and I will take care of it."-"Do then," says she; "and be sure you take care of it."—"I'll answer for it," said I, "if it were for twenty pounds' 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 ale-house 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, as if I was going away and could stay no longer; but as I did not meet her I walked away, and turning into Charterhouse lane made off through Charterhouse yard into Long lane, then crossed into Bartholomew close, so into Little Britain, and through the Blue Coat Hospital into Newgate street. bundle to hold; it seems she was going with her mistress, who she had been to fetch to the Barnet coach. 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 damask, a gown and petticoat, a laced head and rules of very good Flanders lace, and some linen, and other things, such as I knew very well the value of. 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 Whitechapel, 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 Bishopsgate, where the Cheston coaches then lay, and I 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 Newcastleupon-Tyne, Sunderland, and other places. Here the warehouse being shut, comes a young fellow with a letter; and he wanted a box and 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 glass ware. I read the letter, and took care to see the name and the marks, the name of the person that sent the goods, and the name of the person that they were sent to; then I bade the messenger come in the morning, for that the warehouse-keeper would not be there 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 Jemmy Cole in London, with an account that he had sent by such a vessel (for I remembered all the particulars to a tittle) so many pieces of huckaback linen, so many ells of Dutch Holland and the like, in a box, and a hamper of flint glasses from Mr Henzill's glass-house, and that the box was marked I. C. No. 1, and the hamper was directed by a label on the cording. About an hour after I came to the warehouse, found the warehouse-keeper, and had the goods delivered nie without any scruple; the value of the linen being about twenty-two pound. I could fill up the whole discourse with the variety of such adventures which daily invention directed to, and which I managed with the utmost dexterity, and always with success. At length, as when does the pitcher come safe home that goes so often to the well, I fell into some broils, which, though they could not affect me fatally, yet made me known, which was the worst thing, next to being found guilty, that blue apron and wrapt the bundle in it, which beTo prevent being known I pulled off my fore was made up in a piece of painted calico, and very remarkable I also wrapt up my straw- could befal me. hat in it, and so put the bundle upon my head; and it was very well that I did thus, for coming without any real design in view, only waiting meet but the wench that had given me the through the Blue Coat Hospital who should I for anything that might offer. It happened that, I had taken the disguise of a widow's dress; it was as I often did, while I was going along a street in Covent-garden, there was a great cry of" stop thief!" Some artists had, it seems, put a trick upon a shopkeeper; and being pursued, some 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 gaoler; 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, 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. The servants likewise used me saucily, and had much to do to keep their hands off me. The master, indeed, was more civil to me than they, but he would not let me go, though he owned he could not say I was in his shop before. 66 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 another time; and desired I might send for friends to see me have right done. No, 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 said, "He would take care of me in the meantime, and would lodge me safe in Newgate." I told him it was his time now, but it would be 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 bid him observe and remember how I was treated there; that he saw I was detained there by force. I told him I should want him in another place, and it should not be the worse 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 upon this grew surlier than before, and 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, gentlemen, 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. "Good sir," says the mercer to him, tauntingly, "are you a jus | tice of peace, or a constable? I charged you with her, pray 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 journeymen, impudent and unmanly to the last degree, used me barbarously; and one of them, the first that seized upon me, pretended he would search me, and began to lay hands on me. I spit in his face, called out to the constable, and bid him take notice of my usage. And pray, Mr Constable," said I, "ask that villain's name," pointing to the man. The constable reproved him decently, told him that he did not know what he did, for he knew that his master acknowledged I was not the person; And," says the constable, "I am afraid your master is bringing himself and me too into trouble if this gentlewoman 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, and that I gave the piece of satin that is lost into her own hand. 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." 66 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, dragging the poor creature in a most butcherly manner up towards the master, who was in the back shop, and cried out aloud, "Here's the widow, sir; we've catched her at last !"-" What do ye mean by that ?" says the master, "Why, we have her already; there she sits," says he: " and Mr-" says he "can swear that 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, and there's 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 better. heart, but smiled, and said nothing. The master looked pale; the constable turned about and looked at me. "Let them alone, Mr Constable," said I," let them 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;| that they had 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 1, "how can 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, 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 MOLL FLANDERS. servant; I must and will have reparation for || that." witness of his violence unto me since; give me 66 The fellow looked like a condemned thief, and hung back, and then looked at his master, as if he could help him; and he, like a fool, encouraged the fellow to be rude; and he, truly, reThe constablesisted the constable, and pushed him back with a great force when he went to lay hold of 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. Then he began to parley with me; said he would make me any reasonable satisfaction, and would fain have had me told him what it was I expected. I told him I should not be my own judge-the law should decide it for me; and as I was to be carried before a magistrate, I should He told let him hear there what I had to say. me there was no occasion to go before the justice now; I was at liberty to go when I pleased; and, calling to the constable, told him he might let me go, for I was discharged. said calmly to him-" Sir, you asked me just now if I knew whether I was a constable or a justice, and bade me do my duty, and charged me with this gentlewoman as a prisoner. Now, sir, Ifind 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 it 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 a man (I think he was a corn-chandler, 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 it of you for your own sake, for the Pryjustice can do nothing without you." thee fellow," says the mercer, “ go about your business; I tell you I have nothing to say to this gentlewoman; and I charge you in the king's name to dismiss her."-" Sir," says the constable, "I find now I don't know what it is to be a constable; I beg of you, don't oblige me to be rude to you.""-"I think I need not; you are 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 occasions; confining her in your shop, and ill-using her by your servants; and now you say I am rude to you. I think I am civil to you, in not commanding you, or charging you in the king's name, to go with me, and charging every man I see that passes by 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 Well, he would not for all this, and gave the constable ill language. However, the constable kept his temper, and would not be provoked; and then I put in, and said, "Come, Mr Constable, let him alone; I shall find ways enough 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 are the me." The first ill consequence of this fray was, that the woman who was really the thief made off, and got clear away in the crowd, and two others that they had stopped also. Whether they were really guilty or not, that I can say nothing to. By this time, some of his neighbours having come in, and seeing how things went, had endeavoured to bring the 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 we went 1 could hear the people ask what was the matter; and others reply, and say, "A mercer had stopped a gentlewoman instead of a thief, and had afterwards taken the thief, and now the gentlewoman 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 our ancient gentleman in Bloomsbury, the constable giving first a summary account of the matter, the justice bade me speak, and tell what I had to say. And first, he asked my name, which I was very loath to give, but there was no remedy; so 1 told him my name was Mary Flanders; that I was a widow, iny husband being a sea-captain, having 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 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 mourning, but had not yet been in any shop, when that fellow (pointing to the mercer's journeyman) came rushing upon me with such fury as 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 the constable with me. 4 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 servant's refusing to go with him when I had charged him with him, and the mercer's 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, &c., 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 particularly that 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 one; that if he had not been so unjust as to detain me afterwards, he believed I would have forgiven the first affront; that, however, it was not in his power to award me any reparation, other than by openly reproving them, which he should do; that he supposed I should apply to 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 that he should give me some satisfaction for that, for he should commit him to Newgate for assaulting the constable, and for assaulting of 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, hallooing and throwing stones and dirt at the coaches as they rode in, and so I came home. || After this bustle, coming home and telling my governess the story, she fell a-laughing at me. "Why are you so merry?" says I; "the story has not so much laughing room in it as you may imagine; I am sure I have had a great deal of hurry and fright too with a pack of ugly rogues." Laugh," says my governess; "I laugh, child, to see what a lucky creature you are. Why, this job will be the best bargain to you that ever you made in your life, if you manage it well. I warrant you, you shall make the mercer pay five hundred pounds for damages, besides what you shall get of the journeyman." I had other thoughts of the matter than she had, and especially because I had given in my name to the justiec of peace; and I knew that my name was so well known among the people at Hicks's 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 a character. However, I was obliged to begin a prosecution in form, and accordingly my governess found me out a very creditable sort of a man to manage it, being an attorney of very good business and of good repu tation, and she was certainly in the right of this; for had she employed a pettyfogging, hedge solicitor, or a man not known, I should have brought it to but little. I met this attorney, and gave him all the particulars at large, as they are recited above; and he assured me it was a case, as he said, that he did not question but that a jury would give very considerable damages; 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 it was all carried on in the heat of an unhappy passion; that his client, meaning me, had a sharp, provoking tongue, and that I used them ill, gibing 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 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 an 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 must bear all the costs, he believed they would give me freely more than any jury would give upon a trial. I asked him what he thought they would be brought to; he told me he could not tell as 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; that he found me 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 to do myself revenge, 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 offer, for that might be pleaded in abatement 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 of what was transacted then, or at any other of those meetings, they came to a kind of treaty, but so remote and so wide from one |