Bab Bab 54 · 第54章

I was now returned to London, and though by the accident of the last

adventure I got something considerable, yet I was not fond of any more

country rambles, nor should I have ventured abroad again if I had

carried the trade on to the end of my days. I gave my governess a

history of my travels; she liked the Harwich journey well enough, and

in discoursing of these things between ourselves she observed, that a

thief being a creature that watches the advantages of other people’s

mistakes, ’tis impossible but that to one that is vigilant and

industrious many opportunities must happen, and therefore she thought

that one so exquisitely keen in the trade as I was, would scarce fail

of something extraordinary wherever I went.

On the other hand, every branch of my story, if duly considered, may be

useful to honest people, and afford a due caution to people of some

sort or other to guard against the like surprises, and to have their

eyes about them when they have to do with strangers of any kind, for

’tis very seldom that some snare or other is not in their way. The

moral, indeed, of all my history is left to be gathered by the senses

and judgment of the reader; I am not qualified to preach to them. Let

the experience of one creature completely wicked, and completely

miserable, be a storehouse of useful warning to those that read.

I am drawing now towards a new variety of the scenes of life. Upon my

return, being hardened by a long race of crime, and success

unparalleled, at least in the reach of my own knowledge, I had, as I

have said, no thoughts of laying down a trade which, if I was to judge

by the example of others, must, however, end at last in misery and

sorrow.

It was on the Christmas day following, in the evening, that, to finish

a long train of wickedness, I went abroad to see what might offer in my

way; when going by a working silversmith’s in Foster Lane, I saw a

tempting bait indeed, and not be resisted by one of my occupation, for

the shop had nobody in it, as I could see, and a great deal of loose

plate lay in the window, and at the seat of the man, who usually, as I

suppose, worked at one side of the shop.

I went boldly in, and was just going to lay my hand upon a piece of

plate, and might have done it, and carried it clear off, for any care

that the men who belonged to the shop had taken of it; but an officious

fellow in a house, not a shop, on the other side of the way, seeing me

go in, and observing that there was nobody in the shop, comes running

over the street, and into the shop, and without asking me what I was,

or who, seizes upon me, an cries out for the people of the house.

I had not, as I said above, touched anything in the shop, and seeing a

glimpse of somebody running over to the shop, I had so much presence of

mind as to knock very hard with my foot on the floor of the house, and

was just calling out too, when the fellow laid hands on me.

However, as I had always most courage when I was in most danger, so

when the fellow laid hands on me, I stood very high upon it, that I

came in to buy half a dozen of silver spoons; and to my good fortune,

it was a silversmith’s that sold plate, as well as worked plate for

other shops. The fellow laughed at that part, and put such a value upon

the service that he had done his neighbour, that he would have it be

that I came not to buy, but to steal; and raising a great crowd. I said

to the master of the shop, who by this time was fetched home from some

neighbouring place, that it was in vain to make noise, and enter into

talk there of the case; the fellow had insisted that I came to steal,

and he must prove it, and I desired we might go before a magistrate

without any more words; for I began to see I should be too hard for the

man that had seized me.

The master and mistress of the shop were really not so violent as the

man from t’other side of the way; and the man said, “Mistress, you

might come into the shop with a good design for aught I know, but it

seemed a dangerous thing for you to come into such a shop as mine is,

when you see nobody there; and I cannot do justice to my neighbour, who

was so kind to me, as not to acknowledge he had reason on his side;

though, upon the whole, I do not find you attempted to take anything,

and I really know not what to do in it.” I pressed him to go before a

magistrate with me, and if anything could be proved on me that was like

a design of robbery, I should willingly submit, but if not, I expected

reparation.

Just while we were in this debate, and a crowd of people gathered about

the door, came by Sir T. B., an alderman of the city, and justice of

the peace, and the goldsmith hearing of it, goes out, and entreated his

worship to come in and decide the case.

Give the goldsmith his due, he told his story with a great deal of

justice and moderation, and the fellow that had come over, and seized

upon me, told his with as much heat and foolish passion, which did me

good still, rather than harm. It came then to my turn to speak, and I

told his worship that I was a stranger in London, being newly come out

of the north; that I lodged in such a place, that I was passing this

street, and went into the goldsmith’s shop to buy half a dozen of

spoons. By great luck I had an old silver spoon in my pocket, which I

pulled out, and told him I had carried that spoon to match it with half

a dozen of new ones, that it might match some I had in the country.

That seeing nobody I the shop, I knocked with my foot very hard to make

the people hear, and had also called aloud with my voice; ’tis true,

there was loose plate in the shop, but that nobody could say I had

touched any of it, or gone near it; that a fellow came running into the

shop out of the street, and laid hands on me in a furious manner, in

the very moments while I was calling for the people of the house; that

if he had really had a mind to have done his neighbour any service, he

should have stood at a distance, and silently watched to see whether I

had touched anything or no, and then have clapped in upon me, and taken

me in the fact. “That is very true,” says Mr. Alderman, and turning to

the fellow that stopped me, he asked him if it was true that I knocked

with my foot? He said, yes, I had knocked, but that might be because of

his coming. “Nay,” says the alderman, taking him short, “now you

contradict yourself, for just now you said she was in the shop with her

back to you, and did not see you till you came upon her.” Now it was

true that my back was partly to the street, but yet as my business was

of a kind that required me to have my eyes every way, so I really had a

glance of him running over, as I said before, though he did not

perceive it.

After a full hearing, the alderman gave it as his opinion that his

neighbour was under a mistake, and that I was innocent, and the

goldsmith acquiesced in it too, and his wife, and so I was dismissed;

but as I was going to depart, Mr. Alderman said, “But hold, madam, if

you were designing to buy spoons, I hope you will not let my friend

here lose his customer by the mistake.” I readily answered, “No, sir,

I’ll buy the spoons still, if he can match my odd spoon, which I

brought for a pattern”; and the goldsmith showed me some of the very

same fashion. So he weighed the spoons, and they came to

five-and-thirty shillings, so I pulls out my purse to pay him, in which

I had near twenty guineas, for I never went without such a sum about

me, whatever might happen, and I found it of use at other times as well

as now.

When Mr. Alderman saw my money, he said, “Well, madam, now I am

satisfied you were wronged, and it was for this reason that I moved you

should buy the spoons, and stayed till you had bought them, for if you

had not had money to pay for them, I should have suspected that you did

not come into the shop with an intent to buy, for indeed the sort of

people who come upon these designs that you have been charged with, are

seldom troubled with much gold in their pockets, as I see you are.”

I smiled, and told his worship, that then I owed something of his

favour to my money, but I hoped he saw reason also in the justice he

had done me before. He said, yes, he had, but this had confirmed his

opinion, and he was fully satisfied now of my having been injured. So I

came off with flying colours, though from an affair in which I was at

the very brink of destruction.

It was but three days after this, that not at all made cautious by my

former danger, as I used to be, and still pursuing the art which I had

so long been employed in, I ventured into a house where I saw the doors

open, and furnished myself, as I thought verily without being perceived,

with two pieces of flowered silks, such as they call brocaded silk,

very rich. It was not a mercer’s shop, nor a warehouse of a mercer, but

looked like a private dwelling-house, and was, it seems, inhabited by a

man that sold goods for the weavers to the mercers, like a broker or

factor.

That I may make short of this black part of this story, I was attacked

by two wenches that came open-mouthed at me just as I was going out at

the door, and one of them pulled me back into the room, while the other

shut the door upon me. I would have given them good words, but there

was no room for it, two fiery dragons could not have been more furious

than they were; they tore my clothes, bullied and roared as if they

would have murdered me; the mistress of the house came next, and then

the master, and all outrageous, for a while especially.

I gave the master very good words, told him the door was open, and

things were a temptation to me, that I was poor and distressed, and

poverty was when many could not resist, and begged him with tears to

have pity on me. The mistress of the house was moved with compassion,

and inclined to have let me go, and had almost persuaded her husband to

it also, but the saucy wenches were run, even before they were sent,

and had fetched a constable, and then the master said he could not go

back, I must go before a justice, and answered his wife that he might

come into trouble himself if he should let me go.