第 四十二 章 · 第42章

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 seems, knew enough of my governess to have sent her 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 two 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 shops. 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 adventure or two, 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, lay 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 an 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 unhappily 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 lay

together, so now they hanged together, and there ended my new

partnership.

I began now to be very wary, having so narrowly escaped a 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, taking care as I gave him some so to secure as much about

myself as I could conveniently dispose of. There was near £300 worth of

lace in the hole, and I secured about £50 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 a share in the prize, and would fain have put me off with £20,

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 £100, and he rose up to £30; I fell to £80, and he rose again

to £40; in a word, he offered £50, and I consented, only demanding a

piece of lace, which I thought came to about £8 or £9, as if it had

been for my own wear, and he agreed to it. So I got £50 in 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 could have made 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 out prohibited

goods, and after buying some, usually betrayed them, but none of these

discoveries amounted to 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 I found others did, and in which they

miscarried every day.

The next thing of moment was an attempt at a gentlewoman’s gold 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 it would not come, so I let it go

that moment, and cried out as if I had been killed, that somebody had

trod upon my foot, and that there were certainly pickpockets there, for

somebody or other had given a pull at 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; but when she cried out “A pickpocket,”

somebody cried, “Ay, and here has been another! this gentlewoman has

been attempted too.”

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 often 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 at 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 that it could not be slipped up. But

she was in such a fright that she had no 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,

but 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 being 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 a presence of mind 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, she had infallibly

taken me.