The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders
Page 52
that, 'Well,' says he to the constable, 'you maycarry her where you please; I have nothing to say to her.' 'But, sir,'says the constable, 'you will go with us, I hope, for 'tis you thatcharged me with her.' 'No, not I,' says the mercer; 'I tell you I havenothing to say to her.' 'But pray, sir, do,' says the constable; 'Idesire it of you for your own sake, for the justice can do nothingwithout you.' 'Prithee, fellow,' says the mercer, 'go about yourbusiness; I tell you I have nothing to say to the gentlewoman. Icharge you in the king's name to dismiss her.' 'Sir,' says theconstable, 'I find you don't know what it is to be constable; I beg ofyou don't oblige me to be rude to you.' 'I think I need not; you arerude enough already,' says the mercer. 'No, sir,' says the constable,'I am not rude; you have broken the peace in bringing an honest womanout of the street, when she was about her lawful occasion, confiningher in your shop, and ill-using her here by your servants; and now canyou say I am rude to you? I think I am civil to you in not commandingor charging you in the king's name to go with me, and charging everyman I see that passes your door to aid and assist me in carrying you byforce; this you cannot but know I have power to do, and yet I forbearit, and once more entreat you to go with me.' Well, he would not forall this, and gave the constable ill language. However, the constablekept his temper, and would not be provoked; and then I put in and said,'Come, Mr. Constable, let him alone; I shall find ways enough to fetchhim before a magistrate, I don't fear that; but there's the fellow,'says I, 'he was the man that seized on me as I was innocently goingalong the street, and you are a witness of the violence with me since;give me leave to charge you with him, and carry him before thejustice.' 'Yes, madam,' says the constable; and turning to the fellow'Come, young gentleman,' says he to the journeyman, 'you must go alongwith us; I hope you are not above the constable's power, though yourmaster is.'
The fellow looked like a condemned thief, and hung back, then looked athis master, as if he could help him; and he, like a fool, encourage thefellow to be rude, and he truly resisted the constable, and pushed himback with a good force when he went to lay hold on him, at which theconstable knocked him down, and called out for help; and immediatelythe shop was filled with people, and the constable seized the masterand man, and all his servants.
This first ill consequence of this fray was, that the woman they hadtaken, who was really the thief, made off, and got clear away in thecrowd; and two other that they had stopped also; whether they werereally guilty or not, that I can say nothing to.
By this time some of his neighbours having come in, and, upon inquiry,seeing how things went, had endeavoured to bring the hot-brained mercerto his senses, and he began to be convinced that he was in the wrong;and so at length we went all very quietly before the justice, with amob of about five hundred people at our heels; and all the way I went Icould hear the people ask what was the matter, and other reply and say,a mercer had stopped a gentlewoman instead of a thief, and hadafterwards taken the thief, and now the gentlewoman had taken themercer, and was carrying him before the justice. This pleased thepeople strangely, and made the crowd increase, and they cried out asthey went, 'Which is the rogue? which is the mercer?' and especiallythe women. Then when they saw him they cried out, 'That's he, that'she'; and every now and then came a good dab of dirt at him; and thus wemarched a good while, till the mercer thought fit to desire theconstable to call a coach to protect himself from the rabble; so werode the rest of the way, the constable and I, and the mercer and hisman.
When we came to the justice, which was an ancient gentleman inBloomsbury, the constable giving first a summary account of the matter,the justice bade me speak, and tell what I had to say. And first heasked my name, which I was very loth to give, but there was no remedy,so I told him my name was Mary Flanders, that I was a widow, my husbandbeing a sea captain, died on a voyage to Virginia; and some othercircumstances I told which he could never contradict, and that I lodgedat present in town with such a person, naming my governess; but that Iwas preparing to go over to America, where my husband's effects lay,and that I was going that day to buy some clothes to put myself intosecond mourning, but had not yet been in any shop, when that fellow,pointing to the mercer's journeyman, came rushing upon me with suchfury as very much frighted me, and carried me back to his master'sshop, where, though his master acknowledged I was not the person, yethe would not dismiss me, but charged a constable with me.
Then I proceeded to tell how the journeyman treated me; how they wouldnot suffer me to send for any of my friends; how afterwards they foundthe real thief, and took the very goods they had lost upon her, and allthe particulars as before.
Then the constable related his case: his dialogue with the mercerabout discharging me, and at last his servant's refusing to go withhim, when he had charged him with him, and his master encouraging himto do so, and at last his striking the constable, and the like, all asI have told it already.
The justice then heard the mercer and his man. The mercer indeed madea long harangue of the great loss they have daily by lifters andthieves; that it was easy for them to mistake, and that when he foundit he would have dismissed me, etc., as above. As to the journeyman,he had very little to say, but that he pretended other of the servantstold him that I was really the person.
Upon the whole, the justice first of all told me very courteously I wasdischarged; that he was very sorry that the mercer's man should in hiseager pursuit have so little discretion as to take up an innocentperson for a guilty person; that if he had not been so unjust as todetain me afterward, he believed I would have forgiven the firstaffront; that, however, it was not in his power to award me anyreparation for anything, other than by openly reproving them, which heshould do; but he supposed I would apply to such methods as the lawdirected; in the meantime he would bind him over.
But as to the breach of the peace committed by the journeyman, he toldme he should give me some satisfaction for that, for he should commithim to Newgate for assaulting the constable, and for assaulting me also.
Accordingly he sent the fellow to Newgate for that assault, and hismaster gave bail, and so we came away; but I had the satisfaction ofseeing the mob wait upon them both, as they came out, hallooing andthrowing stones and dirt at the coaches they rode in; and so I camehome to my governess.
After this hustle, coming home and telling my governess the story, shefalls a-laughing at me. 'Why are you merry?' says I; 'the story hasnot so much laughing room in it as you imagine; I am sure I have had agreat deal of hurry and fright too, with a pack of ugly rogues.''Laugh!' says my governess; 'I laugh, child, to see what a luckycreature you are; why, this job will be the best bargain to you thatever you made in your life, if you manage it well. I warrant you,'says she, 'you shall make the mercer pay you #500 for damages, besideswhat you shall get out of the journeyman.'
I had other thoughts of the matter than she had; and especially,because I had given in my name to the justice of peace; and I knew thatmy name was so well known among the people at Hick's Hall, the OldBailey, and such places, that if this cause came to be tried openly,and my name came to be inquired into, no court would give much damages,for the reputation of a person of such a character. However, I wasobliged to begin a prosecution in form, and accordingly my governessfound me out a very creditable sort of a man to manage it, being anattorney of very good business, and of a good reputation, and she wascertainly in the right of this; for had she employed a pettifogginghedge solicitor, or a man not known, and not in good reputation, Ishould have brought it to but little.
I met this attorney, and gave him all the particulars at large, as theyare recited above; and he assured me it was a case, as he said, thatwould very well support itself, and that he did not question but that ajury would give very considerable damages on such an occasion; sotaking his full instructions he began the prosecution, and the mercerbeing arrested, gave bail. A few days after his giving bail, he comeswith his attorney to my attorney, to let him know that he desired toaccommodate the matter; that it was all carried o
n in the heat of anunhappy passion; that his client, meaning me, had a sharp provokingtongue, that I used them ill, gibing at them, and jeering them, evenwhile they believed me to be the very person, and that I had provokedthem, and the like.
My attorney managed as well on my side; made them believe I was a widow of fortune, that I was able to do myself justice,and had great friends to stand by me too, who had all made me promiseto sue to the utmost, and that if it cost me a thousand pounds I wouldbe sure to have satisfaction, for that the affronts I had received wereinsufferable.
However, they brought my attorney to this, that he promised he wouldnot blow the coals, that if I inclined to