Moll Flanders

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But I come now to my own case, in which there was at this
time no little nicety. The circumstances I was in made the
offer of a good husband the most necessary thing in the world
to me, but I found soon that to be made cheap and easy was
not the way. It soon began to be found that the widow had
no fortune, and to say this was to say all that was ill of me,
for I began to be dropped in all the discourses of matrimony.
Being well-bred, handsome, witty, modest, and agreeable; all
which I had allowed to my character--whether justly or no is
not the purpose--I say, all these would not do without the
dross, which way now become more valuable than virtue itself.
In short, the widow, they said, had no money.

I resolved, therefore, as to the state of my present circumstances,
that it was absolutely necessary to change my station, and make
a new appearance in some other place where I was not known,
and even to pass by another name if I found occasion.

I communicated my thoughts to my intimate friend, the captain's
lady, whom I had so faithfully served in her case with the
captain, and who was as ready to serve me in the same kind
as I could desire. I made no scruple to lay my circumstances
open to her; my stock was but low, for I had made but about
#540 at the close of my last affair, and I had wasted some of
that; however, I had about #460 left, a great many very rich
clothes, a gold watch, and some jewels, though of no
extraordinary value, and about #30 or #40 left in linen not
disposed of.

My dear and faithful friend, the captain's wife, was so sensible
of the service I had done her in the affair above, that she was
not only a steady friend to me, but, knowing my circumstances,
she frequently made me presents as money came into her
hands, such as fully amounted to a maintenance, so that I spent
none of my own; and at last she made this unhappy proposal
to me, viz. that as we had observed, as above, how the men
made no scruple to set themselves out as persons meriting a
woman of fortune, when they had really no fortune of their
own, it was but just to deal with them in their own way and,
if it was possible, to deceive the deceiver.

The captain's lady, in short, put this project into my head, and
told me if I would be ruled by her I should certainly get a
husband of fortune, without leaving him any room to reproach
me with want of my own. I told her, as I had reason to do,
that I would give up myself wholly to her directions, and that
I would have neither tongue to speak nor feet to step in that
affair but as she should direct me, depending that she would
extricate me out of every difficulty she brought me into,
which she said she would answer for.

The first step she put me upon was to call her cousin, and to
to a relation's house of hers in the country, where she directed
me, and where she brought her husband to visit me; and calling
me cousin, she worked matters so about, that her husband
and she together invited me most passionately to come to town
and be with them, for they now live in a quite different place
from where they were before. In the next place, she tells her
husband that I had at least #1500 fortune, and that after some
of my relations I was like to have a great deal more.

It was enough to tell her husband this; there needed nothing
on my side. I was but to sit still and wait the event, for it
presently went all over the neighbourhood that the young
widow at Captain ----'s was a fortune, that she had at least
#1500, and perhaps a great deal more, and that the captain
said so; and if the captain was asked at any timeabout me,
he made no scruple to affirm it, though he knew not one word
of the matter, other than that his wife had told him so; and in
this he thought no harm, for he really believed it to be so,
because he had it from his wife: so slender a foundation will
those fellows build upon, if they do but think there is a fortune
in the game. With the reputation of this fortune, I presently
found myself blessed with admirers enough, and that I had my
choice of men, as scarce as they said they were, which, by the
way, confirms what I was saying before. This being my case,
I, who had a subtle game to play, had nothing now to do but
to single out from them all the properest man that might be
for my purpose; that is to say, the man who was most likely
to depend upon the hearsay of a fortune, and not inquire too
far into the particulars; and unless I did this I did nothing, for
my case would not bear much inquiry.

I picked out my man without much difficulty, by the judgment
I made of his way of courting me. I had let him run on with
his protestations and oaths that he loved me above all the world;
that if I would make him happy, that was enough; all which I
knew was upon supposition, nay, it was upon a full satisfaction,
that I was very rich, though I never told him a word of it myself.

This was my man; but I was to try him to the bottom, and
indeed in that consisted my safety; for if he baulked, I knew I
was undone, as surely as he was undone if he took me; and
if I did not make some scruple about his fortune, it was the
way to lead him to raise some about mine; and first, therefore,
I pretended on all occasions to doubt his sincerity, and told
him, perhaps he only courted me for my fortune. He stopped
my mouth in that part with the thunder of his protestations,
as above, but still I pretended to doubt.

One morning he pulls off his diamond ring, and writes upon
the glass of the sash in my chamber this line--
'You I love, and you alone.'

I read it, and asked him to lend me his ring, with which I wrote
under it, thus--

'And so in love says every one.'

He takes his ring again, and writes another line thus--

'Virtue alone is an estate.'

I borrowed it again, and I wrote under it--

'But money's virtue, gold is fate.'

He coloured as red as fire to see me turn so quick upon him,
and in a kind of a rage told me he would conquer me, and
writes again thus--

'I scorn your gold, and yet I love.'

I ventured all upon the last cast of poetry, as you'll see, for I
wrote boldly under his last--

'I'm poor: let's see how kind you'll prove.'

This was a sad truth to me; whether he believed me or no, I
could not tell; I supposed then that he did not. However, he
flew to me, took me in his arms, and, kissing me very eagerly,
and with the greatest passion imaginable, he held me fast till
he called for a pen and ink, and then told me he could not wait
the tedious writing on the glass, but, pulling out a piece of
paper, he began and wrote again--

'Be mine, with all your poverty.'

I took his pen, and followed him immediately, thus--

'Yet secretly you hope I lie.'

He told me that was unkind, because it was not just, and that
I put him upon contradicting me, which did not consist with
good manners, any more than with his affection; and therefore,
since I had insensibly drawn him into this poetical scribble, he
begged I would not oblige him to break it off; so he writes
again--

'Let love alone be our debate.'

I wrote again--

'She loves enough that does not hate.'

This he took for a favour, and so laid down the cudgels, that
is to say, the pen; I say, he took if for a favour, and a mighty
one it was, if he had known all. However, he took it as I meant
it, that is, to let him think I was inclined to go on with him, as
indeed I had all the reason in the world to do, for he was the
best-humoured, merry sort of a fellow that I ever met with,
and I often reflected on myself how doubly criminal it was to
deceive such a man; but that necessity, which pressed me to
a settlement suitable to my condition, was my authority for it;
and certainly his affection to me, and the goodness of his temper,
however they might argue against using him ill, yet they strongly
argued to me that he would better take the disappointment
than some fiery-tempered wretch, who might have nothing to
recommend him but those passions which would serve only to
make a woman miserable all her days.

Besides, though I jested with him (as he supposed it) so
often about my poverty, yet, when he found it to be true, he
had foreclosed all manner of objection, seeing, whether he
was in jest or in earnest, he had declared he took me without
any regard to my portion, and, whether I was in jest or in
earnest, I had declared myself to be very poor; so that, in a
word, I had him fast both ways; and though he might say
afterwards he was cheated, yet he could never say that I had
cheated him.

He pursued me close after this, and as I saw there was no need
to fear losing him, I played the indifferent part with him longer
than prudence might otherwise have dictated to me. But I
considered how much this caution and indifference would give
me the advantage over him, when I should come to be under
the necessity of owning my own circumstances to him; and I
managed it the more warily, because I found he inferred from
thence, as indeed he ought to do, that I either had the more
money or the more judgment, and would not venture at all.

I took the freedom one day, after we had talked pretty close
to the subject, to tell him that it was true I had received the
compliment of a lover from him, namely, that he would take
me without inquiring into my fortune, and I would make him
a suitable return in this, viz. that I would make as little inquiry
into his as consisted with reason, but I hoped he would allow
me to ask a few questions, which he would answer or not as
he thought fit; and that I would not be offended if he did not
answer me at all; one of these questions related to our manner
of living, and the place where, because I had heard he had a
great plantation in Virginia, and that he had talked of going
to live there, and I told him I did not care to be transported.

He began from this discourse to let me voluntarily into all
his affairs, and to tell me in a frank, open way all his
circumstances, by which I found he was very well to pass in
the world; but that great part of his estate consisted of three
plantations, which he had in Virginia, which brought him in a
very good income, generally speaking, to the tune of #300, a
year, but that if he was to live upon them, would bring him in
four times as much. 'Very well,' thought I; 'you shall carry
me thither as soon as you please, though I won't tell you so
beforehand.'

I jested with him extremely about the figure he would make
in Virginia; but I found he would do anything I desired, though
he did not seem glad to have me undervalue his plantations,
so I turned my tale. I told him I had good reason not to go
there to live, because if his plantations were worth so much
there, I had not a fortune suitable to a gentleman of #1200 a
year, as he said his estate would be.

He replied generously, he did not ask what my fortune was;
he had told me from the beginning he would not, and he would
be as good as his word; but whatever it was, he assured me he
would never desire me to go to Virginia with him, or go thither
himself without me, unless I was perfectly willing, and made
it my choice.

All this, you may be sure, was as I wished, and indeed nothing
could have happened more perfectly agreeable. I carried it on
as far as this with a sort of indifferency that he often wondered
at, more than at first, but which was the only support of his
courtship; and I mention it the rather to intimate again to the
ladies that nothing but want of courage for such an indifferency
makes our sex so cheap, and prepares them to be ill-used as
they are; would they venture the loss of a pretending fop now
and then, who carries it high upon the point of his own merit,
they would certainly be less slighted, and courted more. Had
I discovered really and truly what my great fortune was, and
that in all I had not full #500 when he expected #1500, yet I
had hooked him so fast, and played him so long, that I was
satisfied he would have had me in my worst circumstances;
and indeed it was less a surprise to him when he learned the
truth than it would have been, because having not the least
blame to lay on me, who had carried it with an air of indifference
to the last, he would not say one word, except that indeed he
thought it had been more, but that if it had been less he did
not repent his bargain; only that he should not be able to
maintain me so well as he intended.

In short, we were married, and very happily married on my
side, I assure you, as to the man; for he was the best-humoured
man that every woman had, but his circumstances were not so
good as I imagined, as, on the other hand, he had not bettered
himself by marrying so much as he expected.

When we were married, I was shrewdly put to it to bring him
that little stock I had, and to let him see it was no more; but
there was a necessity for it, so I took my opportunity one day
when we were alone, to enter into a short dialogue with him
about it. 'My dear,' said I, 'we have been married a fortnight;
is it not time to let you know whether you have got a wife
with something or with nothing?' 'Your own time for that,
my dear,' says he; 'I am satisfied that I have got the wife I
love; I have not troubled you much,' says he, 'with my inquiry
after it.'

'That's true,' says I, 'but I have a great difficulty upon me
about it, which I scarce know how to manage.'

'What's that, m dear?' says he.

'Why,' says I, ''tis a little hard upon me, and 'tis harder upon
you. I am told that Captain ----' (meaning my friend's husband)
'has told you I had a great deal more money than I ever
pretended to have, and I am sure I never employed him to do so.'

'Well,' says he, 'Captain ---- may have told me so, but what
then? If you have not so much, that may lie at his door, but
you never told me what you had, so I have no reason to blame
you if you have nothing at all.'

'That's is so just,' said I, 'and so generous, that it makes my
having but a little a double affliction to me.'

'The less you have, my dear,' says he, 'the worse for us both;
but I hope your affliction you speak of is not caused for fear
I should be unkind to you, for want of a portion. No, no, if
you have nothing, tell me plainly, and at once; I may perhaps
tell the captain he has cheated me, but I can never say you
have cheated me, for did you not give it under your hand that
you were poor? and so I ought to expect you to be.'

'Well,' said I, 'my dear, I am glad I have not been concerned
in deceiving you before marriage. If I deceive you since, 'tis
ne'er the worse; that I am poor is too true, but not so poor as
to have nothing neither'; so I pulled out some bank bills, and
gave him about #160. 'There's something, my dear,' said I,
'and not quite all neither.'

I had brought him so near to expecting nothing, by what I had
said before, that the money, though the sum was small in itself,
was doubly welcome to him; he owned it was more than he
looked for, and that he did not question by my discourse to
him, but that my fine clothes, gold watch, and a diamond ring
or two, had been all my fortune.

I let him please himself with that #160 two or three days, and
then, having been abroad that day, and as if I had been to fetch
it, I brought him #100 more home in gold, and told him there
was a little more portion for him; and, in short, in about a week
more I brought him #180 more, and about #60 in linen, which
I made him believe I had been obliged to take with the #100
which I gave him in gold, as a composition for a debt of #600,
being little more than five shillings in the pound, and overvalued too.

'And now, my dear,' says I to him, 'I am very sorry to tell you,
that there is all, and that I have given you my whole fortune.'
I added, that if the person who had my #600 had not abused
me, I had been worth #1000 to him, but that as it was, I had
been faithful to him, and reserved nothing to myself, but if it
had been more he should have had it.

He was so obliged by the manner, and so pleased with the sum,
for he had been in a terrible fright lest it had been nothing at
all, that he accepted it very thankfully. And thus I got over
the fraud of passing for a fortune without money, and cheating
a man into marrying me on pretence of a fortune; which, by
the way, I take to be one of the most dangerous steps a woman
can take, and in which she runs the most hazard of being
ill-used afterwards.

My husband, to give him his due, was a man of infinite good
nature, but he was no fool; and finding his income not suited
to the manner of living which he had intended, if I had brought
him what he expected, and being under a disappointment in
his return of his plantations in Virginia, he discovered many
times his inclination of going over to Virginia, to live upon
his own; and often would be magnifying the way of living
there, how cheap, how plentiful, how pleasant, and the like.

I began presently to understand this meaning, and I took
him up very plainly one morning, and told him that I did so;
that I found his estate turned to no account at this distance,
compared to what it would do if he lived upon the spot, and
that I found he had a mind to go and live there; and I added,
that I was sensible he had been disappointed in a wife, and
that finding his expectations not answered that way, I could
do no less, to make him amends, than tell him that I was very
willing to go over to Virginia with him and live there.

He said a thousand kind things to me upon the subject of my
making such a proposal to him. He told me, that however
he was disappointed in his expectations of a fortune, he was
not disappointed in a wife, and that I was all to him that a
wife could be, and he was more than satisfied on the whole
when the particulars were put together, but that this offer was
so kind, that it was more than he could express.

To bring the story short, we agreed to go. He told me that he
had a very good house there, that it was well furnished, that
his mother was alive and lived in it, and one sister, which was
all the relations he had; that as soon as he came there, his
mother would remove to another house, which was her own
for life, and his after her decease; so that I should have all the
house to myself; and I found all this to be exactly as he had
said.

To make this part of the story short, we put on board the ship
which we went in, a large quantity of good furniture for our
house, with stores of linen and other necessaries, and a good
cargo for sale, and away we went.

To give an account of the manner of our voyage, which was
long and full of dangers, is out of my way; I kept no journal,
neither did my husband. All that I can say is, that after a
terrible passage, frighted twice with dreadful storms, and once
with what was still more terrible, I mean a pirate who came
on board and took away almost all our provisions; and which
would have been beyond all to me, they had once taken my
husband to go along with them, but by entreaties were prevailed
with to leave him;--I say, after all these terrible things, we
arrived in York River in Virginia, and coming to our plantation,
we were received with all the demonstrations of tenderness
and affection, by my husband's mother, that were possible to
be expressed.

We lived here all together, my mother-in-law, at my entreaty,
continuing in the house, for she was too kind a mother to be
parted with; my husband likewise continued the same as at
first, and I thought myself the happiest creature alive, when
an odd and surprising event put an end to all that felicity in a
moment, and rendered my condition the most uncomfortable,
if not the most miserable, in the world.

My mother was a mighty cheerful, good-humoured old woman
--I may call her old woman, for her son was above thirty; I
say she was very pleasant, good company, and used to entertain
me, in particular, with abundance of stories to divert me, as
well of the country we were in as of the people.

Among the rest, she often told me how the greatest part of
the inhabitants of the colony came thither in very indifferent
circumstances from England; that, generally speaking, they
were of two sorts; either, first, such as were brought over by
masters of ships to be sold as servants. 'Such as we call them,
my dear,' says she, 'but they are more properly called slaves.'
Or, secondly, such as are transported from Newgate and other
prisons, after having been found guilty of felony and other
crimes punishable with death.

'When they come here,' says she, 'we make no difference; the
planters buy them, and they work together in the field till
their time is out. When 'tis expired,' said she, 'they have
encouragement given them to plant for themselves; for they
have a certain number of acres of land allotted them by the
country, and they go to work to clear and cure the land, and
then to plant it with tobacco and corn for their own use; and
as the tradesmen and merchants will trust them with tools and
clothes and other necessaries, upon the credit of their crop
before it is grown, so they again plant every year a little more
than the year before, and so buy whatever they want with the
crop that is before them.

'Hence, child,' says she, 'man a Newgate-bird becomes a great
man, and we have,' continued she, 'several justices of the peace,
officers of the trained bands, and magistrates of the towns they
live in, that have been burnt in the hand.'

She was going on with that part of the story, when her own
part in it interrupted her, and with a great deal of good-humoured
confidence she told me she was one of the second sort of
inhabitants herself; that she came away openly, having ventured
too far in a particular case, so that she was become a criminal.
'And here's the mark of it, child,' says she; and, pulling off her
glove, 'look ye here,' says she, turning up the palm of her
hand, and showed me a very fine white arm and hand, but
branded in the inside of the hand, as in such cases it must be.

This story was very moving to me, but my mother, smiling,
said, 'You need not thing a thing strange, daughter, for as I
told you, some of the best men in this country are burnt in the
hand, and they are not ashamed to own it. There's Major ----,'
says she, 'he was an eminent pickpocket; there's Justice Ba----r,
was a shoplifter, and both of them were burnt in the hand; and
I could name you several such as they are.'

We had frequent discourses of this kind, and abundance of
instances she gave me of the like. After some time, as she was
telling some stories of one that was transported but a few
weeks ago, I began in an intimate kind of way to ask her to
tell me something of her own story, which she did with the
utmost plainness and sincerity; how she had fallen into very ill
company in London in her young days, occasioned by her
mother sending her frequently to carry victuals and other relief
to a kinswoman of hers who was a prisoner in Newgate, and
who lay in a miserable starving condition, was afterwards
condemned to be hanged, but having got respite by pleading
her belly, dies afterwards in the prison.

Here my mother-in-law ran out in a long account of the wicked
practices in that dreadful place, and how it ruined more young
people that all the town besides. 'And child,' says my mother,
'perhaps you may know little of it, or, it may be, have heard
nothing about it; but depend upon it,' says she, 'we all know
here that there are more thieves and rogues made by that one
prison of Newgate than by all the clubs and societies of villains
in the nation; 'tis that cursed place,' says my mother, 'that half
peopled this colony.'

Here she went on with her own story so long, and in so particular
a manner, that I began to be very uneasy; but coming to one
particular that required telling her name, I thought I should
have sunk down in the place. She perceived I was out of
order, and asked me if I was not well, and what ailed me. I
told her I was so affected with the melancholy story she had
told, and the terrible things she had gone through, that it had
overcome me, and I begged of her to talk no more of it. 'Why,
my dear,' says she very kindly, 'what need these things trouble
you? These passages were long before your time, and they
give me no trouble at all now; nay, I look back on them with
a particular satisfaction, as they have been a means to bring
me to this place.' Then she went on to tell me how she very
luckily fell into a good family, where, behaving herself well,
and her mistress dying, her master married her, by whom she
had my husband and his sister, and that by her diligence and
good management after her husband's death, she had improved
the plantations to such a degree as they then were, so that most
of the estate was of her getting, not her husband's, for she had
been a widow upwards of sixteen years.

I heard this part of they story with very little attention, because
I wanted much to retire and give vent to my passions, which
I did soon after; and let any one judge what must be the anguish
of my mind, when I came to reflect that this was certainly no
more or less than my own mother, and I had now had two
children, and was big with another by my own brother, and
lay with him still every night.

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