The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

The disaster of this woman was some months before that of the

last-recited story, and was indeed partly occasion of my governess

proposing to dress me up in men's clothes, that I might go about

unobserved, as indeed I did; but I was soon tired of that disguise, as

I have said, for indeed it exposed me to too many difficulties.

I was now easy as to all fear of witnesses against me, for all those

that had either been concerned with me, or that knew me by the name of

Moll Flanders, were either hanged or transported; and if I should have

had the misfortune to be taken, I might call myself anything else, as

well as Moll Flanders, and no old sins could be placed into my account;

so I began to run a-tick again with the more freedom, and several

successful adventures I made, though not such as I had made before.

We had at that time another fire happened not a great way off from the

place where my governess lived, and I made an attempt there, as before,

but as I was not soon enough before the crowd of people came in, and

could not get to the house I aimed at, instead of a prize, I got a

mischief, which had almost put a period to my life and all my wicked

doings together; for the fire being very furious, and the people in a

great fright in removing their goods, and throwing them out of window,

a wench from out of a window threw a feather-bed just upon me. It is

true, the bed being soft, it broke no bones; but as the weight was

great, and made greater by the fall, it beat me down, and laid me dead

for a while. Nor did the people concern themselves much to deliver me

from it, or to recover me at all; but I lay like one dead and neglected

a good while, till somebody going to remove the bed out of the way,

helped me up. It was indeed a wonder the people in the house had not

thrown other goods out after it, and which might have fallen upon it,

and then I had been inevitably killed; but I was reserved for further

afflictions.

This accident, however, spoiled my market for that time, and I came

home to my governess very much hurt and bruised, and frighted to the

last degree, and it was a good while before she could set me upon my

feet again.

It was now a merry time of the year, and Bartholomew Fair was begun. I

had never made any walks that way, nor was the common part of the fair

of much advantage to me; but I took a turn this year into the

cloisters, and among the rest I fell into one of the raffling shops.

It was a thing of no great consequence to me, nor did I expect to make

much of it; but there came a gentleman extremely well dressed and very

rich, and as 'tis frequent to talk to everybody in those shops, he

singled me out, and was very particular with me. First he told me he

would put in for me to raffle, and did so; and some small matter coming

to his lot, he presented it to me (I think it was a feather muff); then

he continued to keep talking to me with a more than common appearance

of respect, but still very civil, and much like a gentleman.