The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

This first ill consequence of this fray was, that the woman they had

taken, who was really the thief, made off, and got clear away in the

crowd; and two other that they had stopped also; whether they were

really guilty or not, that I can say nothing to.

By this time some of his neighbours having come in, and, upon inquiry,

seeing how things went, had endeavoured to bring the hot-brained mercer

to his senses, and he began to be convinced that he was in the wrong;

and so at length we went all very quietly before the justice, with a

mob of about five hundred people at our heels; and all the way I went I

could hear the people ask what was the matter, and other reply and say,

a mercer had stopped a gentlewoman instead of a thief, and had

afterwards taken the thief, and now the gentlewoman had taken the

mercer, and was carrying him before the justice. This pleased the

people strangely, and made the crowd increase, and they cried out as

they went, 'Which is the rogue? which is the mercer?' and especially

the women. Then when they saw him they cried out, 'That's he, that's

he'; and every now and then came a good dab of dirt at him; and thus we

marched a good while, till the mercer thought fit to desire the

constable to call a coach to protect himself from the rabble; so we

rode the rest of the way, the constable and I, and the mercer and his

man.

When we came to the justice, which was an ancient gentleman in

Bloomsbury, the constable giving first a summary account of the matter,

the justice bade me speak, and tell what I had to say. And first he

asked my name, which I was very loth to give, but there was no remedy,

so I told him my name was Mary Flanders, that I was a widow, my husband

being a sea captain, died on a voyage to Virginia; and some other

circumstances I told which he could never contradict, and that I lodged

at present in town with such a person, naming my governess; but that I

was preparing to go over to America, where my husband's effects lay,

and that I was going that day to buy some clothes to put myself into

second mourning, but had not yet been in any shop, when that fellow,

pointing to the mercer's journeyman, came rushing upon me with such

fury as very much frighted me, and carried me back to his master's

shop, where, though his master acknowledged I was not the person, yet

he would not dismiss me, but charged a constable with me.