by Daniel Defoe
the pull, screamed out, andpushed 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 twominutes' time, which was time enough for me, and to spare. For as Ihad cried out behind her, as I have said, and bore myself back in thecrowd as she bore forward, there were several people, at least seven oreight, the throng being still moving on, that were got between me andher in that time, and then I crying out 'A pickpocket,' rather soonerthan she, or at least as soon, she might as well be the personsuspected 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 asshe felt the pull, not screamed out as she did, but turned immediatelyround and seized the next body that was behind her, she had infalliblytaken me.
This is a direction not of the kindest sort to the fraternity, but 'tiscertainly a key to the clue of a pickpocket's motions, and whoever canfollow it will as certainly catch the thief as he will be sure to missif he does not.
I had another adventure, which puts this matter out of doubt, and whichmay be an instruction for posterity in the case of a pickpocket. Mygood old governess, to give a short touch at her history, though shehad left off the trade, was, as I may say, born a pickpocket, and, as Iunderstood afterwards, had run through all the several degrees of thatart, and yet had never been taken but once, when she was so grosslydetected, that she was convicted and ordered to be transported; butbeing a woman of a rare tongue, and withal having money in her pocket,she found means, the ship putting into Ireland for provisions, to geton shore there, where she lived and practised her old trade for someyears; when falling into another sort of bad company, she turnedmidwife and procuress, and played a hundred pranks there, which shegave me a little history of in confidence between us as we grew moreintimate; and it was to this wicked creature that I owed all the artand dexterity I arrived to, in which there were few that ever wentbeyond me, or that practised so long without any misfortune.
It was after those adventures in Ireland, and when she was pretty wellknown in that country, that she left Dublin and came over to England,where, the time of her transportation being not expired, she left herformer trade, for fear of falling into bad hands again, for then shewas sure to have gone to wreck. Here she set up the same trade she hadfollowed in Ireland, in which she soon, by her admirable management andgood tongue, arrived to the height which I have already described, andindeed began to be rich, though her trade fell off again afterwards, asI have hinted before.
I mentioned thus much of the history of this woman here, the better toaccount for the concern she had in the wicked life I was now leading,into all the particulars of which she led me, as it were, by the hand,and gave me such directions, and I so well followed them, that I grewthe greatest artist of my time and worked myself out of every dangerwith such dexterity, that when several more of my comrades ranthemselves into Newgate presently, and by that time they had been halfa year at the trade, I had now practised upwards of five years, and thepeople at Newgate did not so much as know me; they had heard much of meindeed, and often expected me there, but I always got off, though manytimes in the extremest danger.
One of the greatest dangers I was now in, was that I was too well knownamong the trade, and some of them, whose hatred was owing rather toenvy than any injury I had done them, began to be angry that I shouldalways escape when they were always catched and hurried to Newgate.These were they that gave me the name of Moll Flanders; for it was nomore of affinity with my real name or with any of the name I had evergone by, than black is of kin to white, except that once, as before, Icalled myself Mrs. Flanders; when I sheltered myself in the Mint; butthat these rogues never knew, nor could I ever learn how they came togive me the name, or what the occasion of it was.
I was soon informed that some of these who were gotten fast intoNewgate had vowed to impeach me; and as I knew that two or three ofthem were but too able to do it, I was under a great concern about it,and kept within doors for a good while. But my governess--whom Ialways made partner in my success, and who now played a sure game withme, for that she had a share of the gain and no share in the hazard--Isay, my governess was something impatient of my leading such a useless,unprofitable life, as she called it; and she laid a new contrivance formy going abroad, and this was to dress me up in men's clothes, and soput me into a new kind of practice.
I was tall and personable, but a little too smooth-faced for a man;however, I seldom went abroad but in the night, it did well enough; butit was a long time before I could behave in my new clothes--I mean, asto my craft. It was impossible to be so nimble, so ready, so dexterousat these things in a dress so contrary to nature; and I did everythingclumsily, so I had neither the success nor the easiness of escape thatI had before, and I resolved to leave it off; but that resolution wasconfirmed soon after by the following accident.
As my governess disguised me like a man, so she joined me with a man, ayoung fellow that was nimble enough at his business, and for aboutthree weeks we did very well together. Our principal trade waswatching shopkeepers' counters, and slipping off any kind of goods wecould see carelessly laid anywhere, and we made several good bargains,as we called them, at this work. And as we kept always together, so wegrew very intimate, yet he never knew that I was not a man, nay, thoughI several times went home with him to his lodgings, according as ourbusiness directed, and four or five times lay with him all night. Butour design lay another way, and it was absolutely necessary to me toconceal my sex from him, as appeared afterwards. The circumstances ofour living, coming in late, and having such and such business to do asrequired that nobody should be trusted with the coming into ourlodgings, were such as made it impossible to me to refuse lying withhim, unless I would have owned my sex; and as it was, I effectuallyconcealed myself. But his ill, and my good fortune, soon put an end tothis life, which I must own I was sick of too, on several otheraccounts. We had made several prizes in this new way of business, butthe last would be extraordinary. There was a shop in a certain streetwhich had a warehouse behind it that looked into another street, thehouse making the corner of the turning.
Through the window of the warehouse we saw, lying on the counter orshowboard, which was just before it, five pieces of silks, besidesother stuffs, and though it was almost dark, yet the people, being busyin the fore-shop with customers, had not had time to shut up thosewindows, or else had forgot it.
This the young fellow was so overjoyed with, that he could not restrainhimself. It lay all within his reach he said, and he swore violentlyto me that he would have it, if he broke down the house for it. Idissuaded him a little, but saw there was no remedy; so he ran rashlyupon it, slipped out a square of the sash window dexterously enough,and without noise, and got out four pieces of the silks, and came withthem towards me, but was immediately pursued with a terrible clutterand noise. We were standing together indeed, but I had not taken anyof the goods out of his hand, when I said to him hastily, 'You areundone, fly, for God's sake!' He ran like lightning, and I too, butthe pursuit was hotter after him because he had the goods, than afterme. He dropped two of the pieces, which stopped them a little, but thecrowd increased and pursued us both. They took him soon after with theother two pieces upon him, and then the rest followed me. I ran for itand got into my governess's house whither some quick-eyed peoplefollowed me to warmly as to fix me there. They did not immediatelyknock, at the door, by which I got time to throw off my disguise anddress me in my own clothes; besides, when they came there, mygoverness, who had her tale ready, kept her door shut, and called outto them and told them there was no man come in there. The peopleaffirmed there did a man come in there, and swore they would break openthe door.
My governess, not at all surprised, spoke calmly to them, told themthey should very freely come and search her house, if they should bringa constable, and let in none but such as the constable would admit, forit was unreasonable to let in a whole crowd. This they could notrefuse, though they were a c
rowd. So a constable was fetchedimmediately, and she very freely opened the door; the constable keptthe door, and the men he appointed searched the house, my governessgoing with them from room to room. When she came to my room she calledto me, and said aloud, 'Cousin, pray open the door; here's somegentlemen that must come and look into your room.'
I had a little girl with me, which was my governess's grandchild, asshe called her; and I bade her open the door, and there sat I at workwith a great litter of things about me, as if I had been at work allday, being myself quite undressed, with only night-clothes on my head,and a loose morning-gown wrapped about me. My governess made a kind ofexcuse for their disturbing me, telling me partly the occasion of it,and that she had no remedy but to open the doors to them, and let themsatisfy themselves, for all she could say to them would not satisfythem. I sat still, and bid them search the room if they pleased, forif
