was left at such an inn, and that he might be had there; that
the poor woman that held him, having led him about the street,
not being able to lead him back again, had left him there. We
might have waited till the owner had published and offered a
reward, but we did not care to venture the receiving the reward.
So this was a robbery and no robbery, for little was lost by it,
and nothing was got by it, and I was quite sick of going out in
a beggar’s dress; it did not answer at all, and besides, I thought
it was ominous and threatening.
While I was in this disguise, I fell in with a parcel of folks of
a worse kind than any I ever sorted with, and I saw a little into
their ways too. These were coiners of money, and they made
some very good offers to me, as to profit; but the part they
would have had me have embarked in was the most dangerous
part. I mean that of the very working the die, as they call it,
which, had I been taken, had been certain death, and that at a
stake–I say, to be burnt to death at a stake; so that though I
was to appearance but a beggar, and they promised mountains
of gold and silver to me to engage, yet it would not do. It is
true, if I had been really a beggar, or had been desperate as
when I began, I might perhaps have closed with it; for what
care they to die that can’t tell how to live? But at present
this was not my condition, at least I was for no such terrible
risks as those; besides, the very thoughts of being burnt at a
stake struck terror into my very soul, chilled my blood, and
gave me the vapours to such a degree, as I could not think
of it without trembling.
This put an end to my disguise too, for as I did not like the
proposal, so I did not tell them so, but seemed to relish it, and
promised to meet again. But I durst see them no more; for if I
had seen them, and not complied, though I had declined it with
the greatest assurance of secrecy in the world, they would have
gone near to have murdered me, to make sure work, and make
themselves easy, as they call it. What kind of easiness that is,
they may best judge that understand how easy men are that
can murder people to prevent danger.
This and horse-stealing were things quite out of my way, and
I might easily resolve I would have to more to say to them; my
business seemed to lie another way, and though it had hazard
enough in it too, yet it was more suitable to me, and what had
more of art in it, and more room to escape, and more chances
for a-coming off if a surprise should happen.
I had several proposals made also to me about that time, to
come into a gang of house-breakers; but that was a thing I had
no mind to venture at neither, any more than I had at the
coining trade. I offered to go along with two men and a
woman, that made it their business to get into houses by
stratagem, and with them I was willing enough to venture.
But there were three of them already, and they did not care
to part, nor I to have too many in a gang, so I did not close
with them, but declined them, and they paid dear for their
next attempt.
But at length I met with a woman that had often told me what
adventures she had made, and with success, at the waterside,
and I closed with her, and we drove on our business pretty
well. One day we came among some Dutch people at St.
Catherine’s, where we went on pretence to buy goods that
were privately got on shore. I was two or three times in a
house where we saw a good quantity of prohibited goods,