The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

I that was a great fortune, and passed for such, was above being asked

how much my estate was; and my false friend taking it upon a foolish

hearsay, had raised it from #500 to #5000, and by the time she came

into the country she called it #15,000. The Irishman, for such I

understood him to be, was stark mad at this bait; in short, he courted

me, made me presents, and ran in debt like a madman for the expenses of

his equipage and of his courtship. He had, to give him his due, the

appearance of an extraordinary fine gentleman; he was tall,

well-shaped, and had an extraordinary address; talked as naturally of

his park and his stables, of his horses, his gamekeepers, his woods,

his tenants, and his servants, as if we had been in the mansion-house,

and I had seen them all about me.

He never so much as asked me about my fortune or estate, but assured me

that when we came to Dublin he would jointure me in #600 a year good

land; and that we could enter into a deed of settlement or contract

here for the performance of it.

This was such language indeed as I had not been used to, and I was here

beaten out of all my measures; I had a she-devil in my bosom, every

hour telling me how great her brother lived. One time she would come

for my orders, how I would have my coaches painted, and how lined; and

another time what clothes my page should wear; in short, my eyes were

dazzled. I had now lost my power of saying No, and, to cut the story

short, I consented to be married; but to be the more private, we were

carried farther into the country, and married by a Romish clergyman,

who I was assured would marry us as effectually as a Church of England

parson.

I cannot say but I had some reflections in this affair upon the

dishonourable forsaking my faithful citizen, who loved me sincerely,

and who was endeavouring to quit himself of a scandalous whore by whom

he had been indeed barbarously used, and promised himself infinite

happiness in his new choice; which choice was now giving up herself to

another in a manner almost as scandalous as hers could be.

But the glittering shoe of a great estate, and of fine things, which

the deceived creature that was now my deceiver represented every hour

to my imagination, hurried me away, and gave me no time to think of

London, or of anything there, much less of the obligation I had to a

person of infinitely more real merit than what was now before me.