or four days in Colchester, and then took a passage in a waggon,
because I would not venture being seen in the Harwich coaches.
But I needed not have used so much caution, for there was
nobody in Harwich but the woman of the house could have
known me; nor was it rational to think that she, considering
the hurry she was in, and that she never saw me but once, and
that by candlelight, should have ever discovered me.
I was now returned to London, and though by the accident of
the last adventure I got something considerable, yet I was not
fond of any more country rambles, nor should I have ventured
abroad again if I had carried the trade on to the end of my
days. I gave my governess a history of my travels; she liked
the Harwich journey well enough, and in discoursing of these
things between ourselves she observed, that a thief being a
creature that watches the advantages of other people’s mistakes,
’tis impossible but that to one that is vigilant and industrious
many opportunities must happen, and therefore she thought
that one so exquisitely keen in the trade as I was, would scarce
fail of something extraordinary wherever I went.
On the other hand, every branch of my story, if duly considered,
may be useful to honest people, and afford a due caution to
people of some sort or other to guard against the like surprises,
and to have their eyes 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. The moral, indeed, of all my history
is left to be gathered by the senses and judgment of the reader;
I am not qualified to preach to them. Let the experience of
one creature completely wicked, and completely miserable,
be a storehouse of useful warning to those that read.
I am drawing now towards a new variety of the scenes of life.
Upon my return, being hardened by along race of crime, and
success unparalleled, at least in the reach of my own knowledge,
I had, as I have said, no thoughts of laying down a trade which,
if I was to judge by the example of other, must, however, end
at last in misery and sorrow.
It was on the Christmas day following, in the evening, that,
to finish a long train of wickedness, I went abroad to see what
might offer in my way; when going by a working silversmith’s
in Foster Lane, I saw a tempting bait indeed, and not be
resisted by one of my occupation, for the shop had nobody in
it, as I could see, and a great deal of loose plate lay in the
window, and at the seat of the man, who usually, as I suppose,
worked at one side of the shop.
I went boldly in, and was just going to lay my hand upon a
piece of plate, and might have done it, and carried it clear off,
for any care that the men who belonged to the shop had taken
of it; but an officious fellow in a house, not a shop, on the
other side of the way, seeing me go in, and observing that
there was nobody in the shop, comes running over 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 a glimpse of somebody running over to the shop, I had
so much presence of mind as to knock very hard with my
foot on the floor of the house, and was just calling out too,
when the fellow laid hands on me.
However, as I had always most courage when I was in most
danger, so when the fellow laid hands on me, I stood very
high upon it, that I came 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 for other shops. The fellow laughed