Moll Flanders

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I came accidentally afterwards to hear, that when the young
lady missed her watch, she made a great outcry in the Park,
and sent her footman up and down to see if he could find me
out, she having described me so perfectly that he knew presently
that it was the same person that had stood and talked so long
with him, and asked him so many questions about them; but I
gone far enough out of their reach before she could come at
her footman to tell him the story.

I made another adventure after this, of a nature different from
all I had been concerned in yet, and this was at a gaming-house
near Covent Garden.

I saw several people go in and out; and I stood in the passage
a good while with another woman with me, and seeing a
gentleman go up that seemed to be of more than ordinary
fashion, I said to him, 'Sir, pray don't they give women leave
to go up?' 'Yes, madam,' says he, 'and to play too, if they
please.' 'I mean so, sir,' said I. And with that he said he
would introduce me if I had a mind; so I followed him to the
door, and he looking in, 'There, madam,' says he, 'are the
gamesters, if you have a mind to venture.' I looked in and
said to my comrade aloud, 'Here's nothing but men; I won't
venture among them.' At which one of the gentlemen cried
out, 'You need not be afraid, madam, here's none but fair
gamesters; you are very welcome to come and set what you
please.' so I went a little nearer and looked on, and some of
them brought me a chair, and I sat down and saw the box and
dice go round apace; then I said to my comrade, 'The gentlemen
play too high for us; come, let us go.'

The people were all very civil, and one gentleman in particular
encouraged me, and said, 'Come, madam, if you please to
venture, if you dare trust me, I'll answer for it you shall have
nothing put upon you here.' 'No, sir,' said I, smiling, 'I hope
the gentlemen would not cheat a woman.' But still I declined
venturing, though I pulled out a purse with money in it, that
they might see I did not want money.

After I had sat a while, one gentleman said to me, jeering,
'Come, madam, I see you are afraid to venture for yourself;
I always had good luck with the ladies, you shall set for me,
if you won't set for yourself.' I told him, 'sir, I should be very
loth to lose your money,' though I added, 'I am pretty lucky
too; but the gentlemen play so high, that I dare not indeed
venture my own.'

'Well, well,' says he, 'there's ten guineas, madam; set them
for me.' so I took his money and set, himself looking on. I
ran out nine of the guineas by one and two at a time, and then
the box coming to the next man to me, my gentleman gave
me ten guineas more, and made me set five of them at once,
and the gentleman who had the box threw out, so there was
five guineas of his money again. He was encouraged at this,
and made me take the box, which was a bold venture. However,
I held the box so long that I had gained him his whole money,
and had a good handful of guineas in my lap, and which was
the better luck, when I threw out, I threw but at one or two of
those that had set me, and so went off easy.

When I was come this length, I offered the gentleman all the
gold, for it was his own; and so would have had him play for
himself, pretending I did not understand the game well enough.
He laughed, and said if I had but good luck, it was no matter
whether I understood the game or no; but I should not leave
off. However, he took out the fifteen guineas that he had put
in at first, and bade me play with the rest. I would have told
them to see how much I had got, but he said, 'No, no, don't
tell them, I believe you are very honest, and 'tis bad luck to
tell them'; so I played on.

I understood the game well enough, though I pretended I did
not, and played cautiously. It was to keep a good stock in my
lap, out of which I every now and then conveyed some into
my pocket, but in such a manner, and at such convenient times,
as I was sure he could not see it.

I played a great while, and had very good luck for him; but
the last time I held the box, they set me high, and I threw
boldly at all; I held the box till I gained near fourscore guineas,
but lost above half of it back in the last throw; so I got up, for
I was afraid I should lose it all back again, and said to him,
'Pray come, sir, now, and take it and play for yourself; I think
I have done pretty well for you.' He would have had me play
on, but it grew late, and I desired to be excused. When I gave
it up to him, I told him I hoped he would give me leave to tell
it now, that I might see what I had gained, and how lucky I
had been for him; when I told them, there were threescore
and three guineas. 'Ay,' says I, 'if it had not been for that
unlucky throw, I had got you a hundred guineas.' So I gave
him all the money, but he would not take it till I had put my
hand into it, and taken some for myself, and bid me please
myself. I refused it, and was positive I would not take it
myself; if he had a mind to anything of that kind, it should
be all his own doings.

The rest of the gentlemen seeing us striving cried, 'Give it
her all'; but I absolutely refused that. Then one of them said,
'D----n ye, jack, halve it with her; don't you know you should
be always upon even terms with the ladies.' So, in short, he
divided it with me, and I brought away thirty guineas, besides
about forty-three which I had stole privately, which I was
sorry for afterward, because he was so generous.

Thus I brought home seventy-three guineas, and let my old
governess see what good luck I had at play. However, it was
her advice that I should not venture again, and I took her
counsel, for I never went there any more; for I knew as well
as she, if the itch of play came in, I might soon lose that, and
all the rest of what I had got.

Fortune had smiled upon me to that degree, and I had thriven
so much, and my governess too, for she always had a share
with me, that really the old gentlewoman began to talk of
leaving off while we were well, and being satisfied with what
we had got; but, I know not what fate guided me, I was as
backward to it now as she was when I proposed it to her
before, and so in an ill hour we gave over the thoughts of it
for the present, and, in a word, I grew more hardened and
audacious than ever, and the success I had made my name as
famous as any thief of my sort ever had been at Newgate, and
in the Old Bailey.

I had sometime taken the liberty to play the same gave over
again, which is not according to practice, which however
succeeded not amiss; but generally I took up new figures, and
contrived to appear in new shapes every time I went abroad.

It was not a rumbling time of the year, and the gentlemen
being most of them gone out of town, Tunbridge, and Epsom,
and such places were full of people. But the city was thin,
and I thought our trade felt it a little, as well as other; so that
at the latter end of the year I joined myself with a gang who
usually go every year to Stourbridge Fair, and from thence to
Bury Fair, in Suffolk. We promised ourselves great things
there, but when I came to see how things were, I was weary
of it presently; for except mere picking of pockets, there was
little worth meddling with; neither, if a booty had been made,
was it so easy carrying it off, nor was there such a variety of
occasion for business in our way, as in London; all that I made
of the whole journey was a gold watch at Bury Fair, and a
small parcel of linen at Cambridge, which gave me an occasion
to take leave of the place. It was on old bite, and I though
might do with a country shopkeeper, though in London it
would not.

I bought at a linen-draper's shop, not in the fair, but in the
town of Cambridge, as much fine holland and other things as
came to about seven pounds; when I had done, I bade them
be sent to such an inn, where I had purposely taken up my
being the same morning, as if I was to lodge there that night.

I ordered the draper to send them home to me, about such an
hour, to the inn where I lay, and I would pay him his money.
At the time appointed the draper sends the goods, and I placed
one of our gang at the chamber door, and when the innkeeper's
maid brought the messenger to the door, who was a young
fellow, an apprentice, almost a man, she tells him her mistress
was asleep, but if he would leave the things and call in about
an hour, I should be awake, and he might have the money. He
left the parcel very readily, and goes his way, and in about
half an hour my maid and I walked off, and that very evening
I hired a horse, and a man to ride before me, and went to
Newmarket, and from thence got my passage in a coach that
was not quite full to St. Edmund's Bury, where, as I told you,
I could make but little of my trade, only at a little country
opera-house made a shift to carry off a gold watch from a
lady's side, who was not only intolerably merry, but, as I
thought, a little fuddled, which made my work much easier.

I made off with this little booty to Ipswich, and from thence
to Harwich, where I went into an inn, as if I had newly arrived
from Holland, not doubting but I should make some purchase
among the foreigners that came on shore there; but I found
them generally empty of things of value, except what was in
their portmanteaux and Dutch hampers, which were generally
guarded by footmen; however, I fairly got one of their
portmanteaux one evening out of the chamber where the
gentleman lay, the footman being fast asleep on the bed, and
I suppose very drunk.

The room in which I lodged lay next to the Dutchman's, and
having dragged the heavy thing with much ado out of the
chamber into mine, I went out into the street, to see if I could
find any possibility of carrying it off. I walked about a great
while, but could see no probability either of getting out the
thing, or of conveying away the goods that were in it if I had
opened it, the town being so small, and I a perfect stranger in
it; so I was returning with a resolution to carry it back again,
and leave it where I found it. Just in that very moment I heard
a man make a noise to some people to make haste, for the boat
was going to put off, and the tide would be spent. I called to
the fellow, 'What boat is it, friend,' says I, 'that you belong to?'
'The Ipswich wherry, madam,' says he. 'When do you go off?'
says I. 'This moment, madam,' says he; 'do you want to go
thither?' 'Yes,' said I, 'if you can stay till I fetch my things.'
'Where are your things, madam?' says he. 'At such an inn,'
said I. 'Well, I'll go with you, madam,' says he, very civilly,
'and bring them for you.' 'Come away, then,' says I, and takes
him with me.

The people of the inn were in a great hurry, the packet-boat
from Holland being just come in, and two coaches just come
also with passengers from London, for another packet-boat
that was going off for Holland, which coaches were to go back
next day with the passengers that were just landed. In this
hurry it was not much minded that I came to the bar and paid
my reckoning, telling my landlady I had gotten my passage by
sea in a wherry.

These wherries are large vessels, with good accommodation
for carrying passengers from Harwich to London; and though
they are called wherries, which is a word used in the Thames
for a small boat rowed with one or two men, yet these are
vessels able to carry twenty passengers, and ten or fifteen tons
of goods, and fitted to bear the sea. All this I had found out
by inquiring the night before into the several ways of going
to London.

My landlady was very courteous, took my money for my
reckoning, but was called away, all the house being in a hurry.
So I left her, took the fellow up to my chamber, gave him the
trunk, or portmanteau, for it was like a trunk, and wrapped it
about with an old apron, and he went directly to his boat with
it, and I after him, nobody asking us the least question about
it; as for the drunken Dutch footman he was still asleep, and
his master with other foreign gentlemen at supper, and very
merry below, so I went clean off with it to Ipswich; and going
in the night, the people of the house knew nothing but that I
was gone to London by the Harwich wherry, as I had told my
landlady.

I was plagued at Ipswich with the custom-house officers, who
stopped my trunk, as I called it, and would open and search it.
I was willing, I told them, they should search it, but husband
had the key, and he was not yet come from Harwich; this I
said, that if upon searching it they should find all the things
be such as properly belonged to a man rather than a woman,
it should not seem strange to them. However, they being
positive to open the trunk I consented to have it be broken
open, that is to say, to have the lock taken off, which was not
difficult.

They found nothing for their turn, for the trunk had been
searched before, but they discovered several things very much
to my satisfaction, as particularly a parcel of money in French
pistols, and some Dutch ducatoons or rix-dollars, and the rest
was chiefly two periwigs, wearing-linen, and razors, wash-balls,
perfumes, and other useful things necessary for a gentleman,
which all passed for my husband's, and so I was quit to them.

It was now very early in the morning, and not light, and I
knew not well what course to take; for I made no doubt but I
should be pursued in the morning, and perhaps be taken with
the things about me; so I resolved upon taking new measures.
I went publicly to an inn in the town with my trunk, as I called
it, and having taken the substance out, I did not think the
lumber of it worth my concern; however, I gave it the landlady
of the house with a charge to take great care of it, and lay it
up safe till I should come again, and away I walked in to the
street.

When I was got into the town a great way from the inn, I met
with an ancient woman who had just opened her door, and I
fell into chat with her, and asked her a great many wild
questions of things all remote to my purpose and design; but
in my discourse I found by her how the town was situated,
that I was in a street that went out towards Hadley, but that
such a street went towards the water-side, such a street towards
Colchester, and so the London road lay there.

I had soon my ends of this old woman, for I only wanted to
know which was the London road, and away I walked as fast
as I could; not that I intended to go on foot, either to London
or to Colchester, but I wanted to get quietly away from Ipswich.

I walked about two or three miles, and then I met a plain
countryman, who was busy about some husbandry work, I did
not know what, and I asked him a great many questions first,
not much to the purpose, but at last told him I was going for
London, and the coach was full, and I could not get a passage,
and asked him if he could tell me where to hire a horse that
would carry double, and an honest man to ride before me to
Colchester, that so I might get a place there in the coaches.
The honest clown looked earnestly at me, and said nothing
for above half a minute, when, scratching his poll, 'A horse,
say you and to Colchester, to carry double? why yes, mistress,
alack-a-day, you may have horses enough for money.' 'Well,
friend,' says I, 'that I take for granted; I don't expect it without
money.' 'Why, but, mistress,' says he, 'how much are you
willing to give?' 'Nay,' says I again, 'friend, I don't know
what your rates are in the country here, for I am a stranger;
but if you can get one for me, get it as cheap as you can, and
I'll give you somewhat for your pains.'

'Why, that's honestly said too,' says the countryman. 'Not
so honest, neither,' said I to myself, 'if thou knewest all.'
'Why, mistress,' says he, 'I have a horse that will carry double,
and I don't much care if I go myself with you,' and the like.
'Will you?' says I; 'well, I believe you are an honest man; if
you will, I shall be glad of it; I'll pay you in reason.' 'Why,
look ye, mistress,' says he, 'I won't be out of reason with you,
then; if I carry you to Colchester, it will be worth five shillings
for myself and my horse, for I shall hardly come back to-night.'

In short, I hired the honest man and his horse; but when we
came to a town upon the road (I do not remember the name
of it, but it stands upon a river), I pretended myself very ill,
and I could go no farther that night but if he would stay there
with me, because I was a stranger, I would pay him for himself
and his horse with all my heart.

This I did because I knew the Dutch gentlemen and their
servants would be upon the road that day, either in the
stagecoaches or riding post, and I did not know but the drunken
fellow, or somebody else that might have seen me at Harwich,
might see me again, and so I thought that in one day's stop
they would be all gone by.

We lay all that night there, and the next morning it was not
very early when I set out, so that it was near ten o'clock by
the time I got to Colchester. It was no little pleasure that I
saw the town where I had so many pleasant days, and I made
many inquiries after the good old friends I had once had there,
but could make little out; they were all dead or removed. The
young ladies had been all married or gone to London; the old
gentleman and the old lady that had been my early benefacress
all dead; and which troubled me most, the young gentleman
my first lover, and afterwards my brother-in-law, was dead;
but two sons, men grown, were left of him, but they too were
transplanted to London.

I dismissed my old man here, and stayed incognito for three
or four days in Colchester, and then took a passage in a waggon,
because I would not venture being seen in the Harwich coaches.
But I needed not have used so much caution, for there was
nobody in Harwich but the woman of the house could have
known me; nor was it rational to think that she, considering
the hurry she was in, and that she never saw me but once, and
that by candlelight, should have ever discovered me.

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 along 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 other, 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.

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