The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

Some of the servants likewise used me saucily, and had much ado to keep

their hands off me; the master indeed was civiller to me than they, but

he would not yet let me go, though he owned he could not say I was in

his shop before.

I began to be a little surly with him, and told him I hoped he would

not take it ill if I made myself amends upon him in a more legal way

another time; and desired I might send for friends to see me have right

done me. No, he said, he could give no such liberty; I might ask it

when I came before the justice of peace; and seeing I threatened him,

he would take care of me in the meantime, and would lodge me safe in

Newgate. I told him it was his time now, but it would be mine by and

by, and governed my passion as well as I was able. However, I spoke to

the constable to call me a porter, which he did, and then I called for

pen, ink, and paper, but they would let me have none. I asked the

porter his name, and where he lived, and the poor man told it me very

willingly. I bade him observe and remember how I was treated there;

that he saw I was detained there by force. I told him I should want

his evidence in another place, and it should not be the worse for him

to speak. The porter said he would serve me with all his heart. 'But,

madam,' says he, 'let me hear them refuse to let you go, then I may be

able to speak the plainer.' With that I spoke aloud to the master of the shop, and said, 'Sir, you

know in your own conscience that I am not the person you look for, and

that I was not in your shop before, therefore I demand that you detain

me here no longer, or tell me the reason of your stopping me.' The

fellow grew surlier upon this than before, and said he would do neither

till he thought fit. 'Very well,' said I to the constable and to the

porter; 'you will be pleased to remember this, gentlemen, another

time.' The porter said, 'Yes, madam'; and the constable began not to

like it, and would have persuaded the mercer to dismiss him, and let me

go, since, as he said, he owned I was not the person. 'Good, sir,'

says the mercer to him tauntingly, 'are you a justice of peace or a

constable? I charged you with her; pray do you do your duty.' The

constable told him, a little moved, but very handsomely, 'I know my

duty, and what I am, sir; I doubt you hardly know what you are doing.'

They had some other hard words, and in the meantime the journeyman,

impudent and unmanly to the last degree, used me barbarously, and one

of them, the same that first seized upon me, pretended he would search

me, and began to lay hands on me. I spit in his face, called out to

the constable, and bade him to take notice of my usage. 'And pray, Mr.

Constable,' said I, 'ask that villain's name,' pointing to the man.

The constable reproved him decently, told him that he did not know what

he did, for he knew that his master acknowledged I was not the person

that was in his shop; 'and,' says the constable, 'I am afraid your

master is bringing himself, and me too, into trouble, if this

gentlewoman comes to prove who she is, and where she was, and it

appears that she is not the woman you pretend to.' 'Damn her,' says

the fellow again, with a impudent, hardened face, 'she is the lady, you

may depend upon it; I'll swear she is the same body that was in the

shop, and that I gave the pieces of satin that is lost into her own

hand. You shall hear more of it when Mr. William and Mr. Anthony

(those were other journeymen) come back; they will know her again as

well as I.' Just as the insolent rogue was talking thus to the constable, comes

back Mr. William and Mr. Anthony, as he called them, and a great rabble

with them, bringing along with them the true widow that I was pretended

to be; and they came sweating and blowing into the shop, and with a

great deal of triumph, dragging the poor creature in the most butcherly

manner up towards their master, who was in the back shop, and cried out

aloud, 'Here's the widow, sir; we have catcher her at last.' 'What do

ye mean by that?' says the master. 'Why, we have her already; there

she sits,' says he, 'and Mr. ----,' says he, 'can swear this is she.'

The other man, whom they called Mr. Anthony, replied, 'Mr. ---- may say

what he will, and swear what he will, but this is the woman, and

there's the remnant of satin she stole; I took it out of her clothes

with my own hand.' I sat still now, and began to take a better heart, but smiled and said

nothing; the master looked pale; the constable turned about and looked

at me. 'Let 'em alone, Mr. Constable,' said I; 'let 'em go on.' The

case was plain and could not be denied, so the constable was charged

with the right thief, and the mercer told me very civilly he was sorry

for the mistake, and hoped I would not take it ill; that they had so

many things of this nature put upon them every day, that they could not

be blamed for being very sharp in doing themselves justice. 'Not take

it ill, sir!' said I; 'how can I take it well! If you had dismissed me

when your insolent fellow seized on me it the street, and brought me to

you, and when you yourself acknowledged I was not the person, I would

have put it by, and not taken it ill, because of the many ill things I

believe you have put upon you daily; but your treatment of me since has

been insufferable, and especially that of your servant; I must and will

have reparation for that.' Then he began to parley with me, said he would make me any reasonable

satisfaction, and would fain have had me tell him what it was I

expected. I told him that I should not be my own judge, the law should

decide it for me; and as I was to be carried before a magistrate, I

should let him hear there what I had to say. He told me there was no

occasion to go before the justice now, I was at liberty to go where I

pleased; and so, calling to the constable, told him he might let me go,

for I was discharged. The constable said calmly to him, 'sir, you

asked me just now if I knew whether I was a constable or justice, and

bade me do my duty, and charged me with this gentlewoman as a prisoner.

Now, sir, I find you do not understand what is my duty, for you would

make me a justice indeed; but I must tell you it is not in my power. I

may keep a prisoner when I am charged with him, but 'tis the law and

the magistrate alone that can discharge that prisoner; therefore 'tis a

mistake, sir; I must carry her before a justice now, whether you think

well of it or not.' The mercer was very high with the constable at

first; but the constable happening to be not a hired officer, but a

good, substantial kind of man (I think he was a corn-handler), and a

man of good sense, stood to his business, would not discharge me

without going to a justice of the peace; and I insisted upon it too.

When the mercer saw that, 'Well,' says he to the constable, 'you may

carry her where you please; I have nothing to say to her.' 'But, sir,'

says the constable, 'you will go with us, I hope, for 'tis you that

charged me with her.' 'No, not I,' says the mercer; 'I tell you I have

nothing to say to her.' 'But pray, sir, do,' says the constable; 'I

desire it of you for your own sake, for the justice can do nothing

without you.' 'Prithee, fellow,' says the mercer, 'go about your

business; I tell you I have nothing to say to the gentlewoman. I

charge you in the king's name to dismiss her.' 'Sir,' says the

constable, 'I find you don't know what it is to be constable; I beg of

you don't oblige me to be rude to you.' 'I think I need not; you are

rude enough already,' says the mercer. 'No, sir,' says the constable,

'I am not rude; you have broken the peace in bringing an honest woman

out of the street, when she was about her lawful occasion, confining

her in your shop, and ill-using her here by your servants; and now can

you say I am rude to you? I think I am civil to you in not commanding

or charging you in the king's name to go with me, and charging every

man I see that passes your door to aid and assist me in carrying you by

force; this you cannot but know I have power to do, and yet I forbear

it, and once more entreat you to go with me.' Well, he would not for

all this, and gave the constable ill language. However, the constable

kept his temper, and would not be provoked; and then I put in and said,

'Come, Mr. Constable, let him alone; I shall find ways enough to fetch

him before a magistrate, I don't fear that; but there's the fellow,'

says I, 'he was the man that seized on me as I was innocently going

along the street, and you are a witness of the violence with me since;

give me leave to charge you with him, and carry him before the

justice.' 'Yes, madam,' says the constable; and turning to the fellow

'Come, young gentleman,' says he to the journeyman, 'you must go along

with us; I hope you are not above the constable's power, though your

master is.' The fellow looked like a condemned thief, and hung back, then looked at

his master, as if he could help him; and he, like a fool, encourage the

fellow to be rude, and he truly resisted the constable, and pushed him

back with a good force when he went to lay hold on him, at which the

constable knocked him down, and called out for help; and immediately

the shop was filled with people, and the constable seized the master

and man, and all his servants.