The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

by Daniel Defoe

gentleman, and a bold enterprising man, to find his wayback again, and perhaps some ways and means to come back before hewent. He smiled at that part, and said he should like the last thebest of the two, for he had a kind of horror upon his mind at his beingsent over to the plantations, as Romans sent condemned slaves to workin the mines; that he thought the passage into another state, let it bewhat it would, much more tolerable at the gallows, and that this wasthe general notion of all the gentlemen who were driven by the exigenceof their fortunes to take the road; that at the place of executionthere was at least an end of all the miseries of the present state, andas for what was to follow, a man was, in his opinion, as likely torepent sincerely in the last fortnight of his life, under the pressuresand agonies of a jail and the condemned hole, as he would ever be inthe woods and wilderness of America; that servitude and hard labourwere things gentlemen could never stoop to; that it was but the way toforce them to be their own executioners afterwards, which was muchworse; and that therefore he could not have any patience when he didbut think of being transported.

  I used the utmost of my endeavour to persuade him, and joined thatknown woman's rhetoric to it--I mean, that of tears. I told him theinfamy of a public execution was certainly a greater pressure upon thespirits of a gentleman than any of the mortifications that he couldmeet with abroad could be; that he had at least in the other a chancefor his life, whereas here he had none at all; that it was the easiestthing in the world for him to manage the captain of a ship, who were,generally speaking, men of good-humour and some gallantry; and a smallmatter of conduct, especially if there was any money to be had, wouldmake way for him to buy himself off when he came to Virginia.

  He looked wistfully at me, and I thought I guessed at what he meant,that is to say, that he had no money; but I was mistaken, his meaningwas another way. 'You hinted just now, my dear,' said he, 'that theremight be a way of coming back before I went, by which I understood youthat it might be possible to buy it off here. I had rather give #200to prevent going, than #100 to be set at liberty when I came there.''That is, my dear,' said I, 'because you do not know the place so wellas I do.' 'That may be,' said he; 'and yet I believe, as well as youknow it, you would do the same, unless it is because, as you told me,you have a mother there.'

  I told him, as to my mother, it was next to impossible but that shemust be dead many years before; and as for any other relations that Imight have there, I knew them not now; that since the misfortunes I hadbeen under had reduced me to the condition I had been in for someyears, I had not kept up any correspondence with them; and that hewould easily believe, I should find but a cold reception from them if Ishould be put to make my first visit in the condition of a transportedfelon; that therefore, if I went thither, I resolved not to see them;but that I had many views in going there, if it should be my fate,which took off all the uneasy part of it; and if he found himselfobliged to go also, I should easily instruct him how to manage himself,so as never to go a servant at all, especially since I found he was notdestitute of money, which was the only friend in such a condition.

  He smiled, and said he did not tell me he had money. I took him upshort, and told him I hoped he did not understand by my speaking, thatI should expect any supply from him if he had money; that, on the otherhand, though I had not a great deal, yet I did not want, and while Ihad any I would rather add to him than weaken him in that article,seeing, whatever he had, I knew in the case of transportation he wouldhave occasion of it all.

  He expressed himself in a most tender manner upon that head. He toldme what money he had was not a great deal, but that he would never hideany of it from me if I wanted it, and that he assured me he did notspeak with any such apprehensions; that he was only intent upon what Ihad hinted to him before he went; that here he knew what to do withhimself, but that there he should be the most ignorant, helpless wretchalive.

  I told him he frighted and terrified himself with that which had noterror in it; that if he had money, as I was glad to hear he had, hemight not only avoid the servitude supposed to be the consequence oftransportation, but begin the world upon a new foundation, and thatsuch a one as he could not fail of success in, with the commonapplication usual in such cases; that he could not but call to mindthat it was what I had recommended to him many years before and hadproposed it for our mutual subsistence and restoring our fortunes inthe world; and I would tell him now, that to convince him both of thecertainty of it and of my being fully acquainted with the method, andalso fully satisfied in the probability of success, he should first seeme deliver myself from the necessity of going over at all, and thenthat I would go with him freely, and of my own choice, and perhapscarry enough with me to satisfy him that I did not offer it for want ofbeing able to live without assistance from him, but that I thought ourmutual misfortunes had been such as were sufficient to reconcile usboth to quitting this part of the world, and living where nobody couldupbraid us with what was past, or we be in any dread of a prison, andwithout agonies of a condemned hole to drive us to it; this where weshould look back on all our past disasters with infinite satisfaction,when we should consider that our enemies should entirely forget us, andthat we should live as new people in a new world, nobody havinganything to say to us, or we to them.

  I pressed this home to him with so many arguments, and answered all hisown passionate objections so effectually that he embraced me, and toldme I treated him with such sincerity and affection as overcame him;that he would take my advice, and would strive to submit to his fate inhope of having the comfort of my assistance, and of so faithful acounsellor and such a companion in his misery. But still he put me inmind of what I had mentioned before, namely, that there might be someway to get off before he went, and that it might be possible to avoidgoing at all, which he said would be much better. I told him he shouldsee, and be fully satisfied, that I would do my utmost in that parttoo, and if it did not succeed, yet that I would make good the rest.

  We parted after this long conference with such testimonies of kindnessand affection as I thought were equal, if not superior, to that at ourparting at Dunstable; and now I saw more plainly than before, thereason why he declined coming at that time any farther with me towardLondon than Dunstable, and why, when we parted there, he told me it wasnot convenient for him to come part of the way to London to bring megoing, as he would otherwise have done. I have observed that theaccount of his life would have made a much more pleasing history thanthis of mine; and, indeed, nothing in it was more strange than thispart, viz. that he carried on that desperate trade full five-and-twentyyears and had never been taken, the success he had met with had been sovery uncommon, and such that sometimes he had lived handsomely, andretired in place for a year or two at a time, keeping himself and aman-servant to wait on him, and had often sat in the coffee-houses andheard the very people whom he had robbed give accounts of their beingrobbed, and of the place and circumstances, so that he could easilyremember that it was the same.

  In this manner, it seems, he lived near Liverpool at the time heunluckily married me for a fortune. Had I been the fortune heexpected, I verily believe, as he said, that he would have taken up andlived honestly all his days.

  He had with the rest of his misfortunes the good luck not to beactually upon the spot when the robbery was done which he was committedfor, and so none of the persons robbed could swear to him, or hadanything to charge upon him. But it seems as he was taken with thegang, one hard-mouthed countryman swore home to him, and they were liketo have others come in according to the publication they had made; sothat they expected more evidence against him, and for that reason hewas kept in hold.

  However, the offer which was made to him of admitting him totransportation was made, as I understood, upon the intercession of somegreat person who pressed him hard to accept of it before a trial; andindeed, as he knew there were several that might come in against him, Ithought his friend was in the right, and I lay at him night and day todelay it no longer.

  At last, with muc
h difficulty, he gave his consent; and as he was nottherefore admitted to transportation in court, and on his petition, asI was, so he found himself under a difficulty to avoid embarkinghimself as I had said he might have done; his great friend, who was hisintercessor for the favour of that grant, having given security for himthat he should transport himself, and not return within the term.

  This hardship broke all my measures, for the steps I took afterwardsfor my own deliverance were hereby rendered wholly ineffectual, unlessI would abandon him, and leave him to go to America by himself; thanwhich he protested he would much rather venture, although he werecertain to go directly to the gallows.

  I must now return to my case. The time of my being transportedaccording to my sentence was near at hand; my governess, who continuedmy fast friend, had tried to obtain a pardon, but it could not be doneunless with an expense too heavy for my purse, considering that to beleft