The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

hadcarried the trade on to the end of my days. I gave my governess ahistory of my travels; she liked the Harwich journey well enough, andin discoursing of these things between ourselves she observed, that athief being a creature that watches the advantages of other people'smistakes, 'tis impossible but that to one that is vigilant andindustrious many opportunities must happen, and therefore she thoughtthat one so exquisitely keen in the trade as I was, would scarce failof something extraordinary wherever I went.

  On the other hand, every branch of my story, if duly considered, may beuseful to honest people, and afford a due caution to people of somesort or other to guard against the like surprises, and to have theireyes 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. Themoral, indeed, of all my history is left to be gathered by the sensesand judgment of the reader; I am not qualified to preach to them. Letthe experience of one creature completely wicked, and completelymiserable, be a storehouse of useful warning to those that read.

  I am drawing now towards a new variety of the scenes of life. Upon myreturn, being hardened by a long race of crime, and successunparalleled, at least in the reach of my own knowledge, I had, as Ihave said, no thoughts of laying down a trade which, if I was to judgeby the example of other, must, however, end at last in misery andsorrow.

  It was on the Christmas day following, in the evening, that, to finisha long train of wickedness, I went abroad to see what might offer in myway; when going by a working silversmith's in Foster Lane, I saw atempting bait indeed, and not be resisted by one of my occupation, forthe shop had nobody in it, as I could see, and a great deal of looseplate lay in the window, and at the seat of the man, who usually, as Isuppose, worked at one side of the shop.

  I went boldly in, and was just going to lay my hand upon a piece ofplate, and might have done it, and carried it clear off, for any carethat the men who belonged to the shop had taken of it; but an officiousfellow in a house, not a shop, on the other side of the way, seeing mego in, and observing that there was nobody in the shop, comes runningover 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 aglimpse of somebody running over to the shop, I had so much presence ofmind as to knock very hard with my foot on the floor of the house, andwas just calling out too, when the fellow laid hands on me.

  However, as I had always most courage when I was in most danger, sowhen the fellow laid hands on me, I stood very high upon it, that Icame 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 forother shops. The fellow laughed at that part, and put such a valueupon the service that he had done his neighbour, that he would have itbe that I came not to buy, but to steal; and raising a great crowd. Isaid to the master of the shop, who by this time was fetched home fromsome neighbouring place, that it was in vain to make noise, and enterinto talk there of the case; the fellow had insisted that I came tosteal, and he must prove it, and I desired we might go before amagistrate without any more words; for I began to see I should be toohard for the man that had seized me.

  The master and mistress of the shop were really not so violent as theman from t'other side of the way; and the man said, 'Mistress, youmight come into the shop with a good design for aught I know, but itseemed 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, whowas 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 amagistrate with me, and if anything could be proved on me that was likea design of robbery, I should willingly submit, but if not, I expectedreparation.

  Just while we were in this debate, and a crowd of people gathered aboutthe door, came by Sir T. B., an alderman of the city, and justice ofthe peace, and the goldsmith hearing of it, goes out, and entreated hisworship to come in and decide the case.

  Give the goldsmith his due, he told his story with a great deal ofjustice and moderation, and the fellow that had come over, and seizedupon me, told his with as much heat and foolish passion, which did megood still, rather than harm. It came then to my turn to speak, and Itold his worship that I was a stranger in London, being newly come outof the north; that I lodged in such a place, that I was passing thisstreet, and went into the goldsmith's shop to buy half a dozen ofspoons. By great luck I had an old silver spoon in my pocket, which Ipulled out, and told him I had carried that spoon to match it with halfa 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 makethe 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 hadtouched any of it, or gone near it; that a fellow came running into theshop out of the street, and laid hands on me in a furious manner, inthe very moments while I was calling for the people of the house; thatif he had really had a mind to have done his neighbour any service, heshould have stood at a distance, and silently watched to see whether Ihad touched anything or no, and then have clapped in upon me, and takenme in the fact. 'That is very true,' says Mr. Alderman, and turning tothe fellow that stopped me, he asked him if it was true that I knockedwith my foot? He said, yes, I had knocked, but that might be becauseof his coming. 'Nay,' says the alderman, taking him short, 'now youcontradict yourself, for just now you said she was in the shop with herback to you, and did not see you till you came upon her.' Now it wastrue that my back was partly to the street, but yet as my business wasof a kind that required me to have my eyes every way, so I really had aglance of him running over, as I said before, though he did notperceive it.

  After a full hearing, the alderman gave it as his opinion that hisneighbour was under a mistake, and that I was innocent, and thegoldsmith 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, ifyou were designing to buy spoons, I hope you will not let my friendhere 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 Ibrought for a pattern'; and the goldsmith showed me some of the verysame fashion. So he weighed the spoons, and they came tofive-and-thirty shillings, so I pulls out my purse to pay him, in whichI had near twenty guineas, for I never went without such a sum aboutme, whatever might happen, and I found it of use at other times as wellas now.

  When Mr. Alderman saw my money, he said, 'Well, madam, now I amsatisfied you were wronged, and it was for this reason that I moved youshould buy the spoons, and stayed till you had bought them, for if youhad not had money to pay for them, I should have suspected that you didnot come into the shop with an intent to buy, for indeed the sort ofpeople who come upon these designs that you have been charged with, areseldom troubled with much gold in their pockets, as I see you are.'

  I smiled, and told his worship, that then I owed something of hisfavour to my money, but I hoped he saw reason also in the justice hehad done me before. He said, yes, he had, but this had confirmed hisopinion, and he was fully satisfied now of my having been injured. SoI came off with flying colours, though from an affair in which I was atthe very brink of destruction.

  It was but three days after this, that not at all made cautious by myformer danger, as I used to be, and still pursuing the art which I hadso long been employed in, I ventured into a house where I saw the doorsopen, and furnished myself, as I though 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, inhabitedby a man that sold goods for the weavers to the mercers, like a brokeror factor.

  That I may make short of this black part of this story,
I was attackedby two wenches that came open-mouthed at me just as I was going out atthe door, and one of them pulled me back into the room, while the othershut the door upon me. I would have given them good words, but therewas no room for it, two fiery dragons could not have been more furiousthan they were; they tore my clothes, bullied and roared as if theywould have murdered me; the mistress of the house came next, and thenthe master, and all outrageous, for a while especially.

  I gave the master very good words, told him the door was open, andthings were a temptation to me, that I was poor and distressed, andpoverty was when many could not resist, and begged him with tears tohave 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 toit also, but the saucy wenches were run, even before they were sent,and had fetched a constable, and then the master said he