The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

It is not to be wondered that we prisoners were all desirous enough to

see these brave, topping gentlemen, that were talked up to be such as

their fellows had not been known, and especially because it was said

they would in the morning be removed into the press-yard, having given

money to the head master of the prison, to be allowed the liberty of

that better part of the prison. So we that were women placed ourselves

in the way, that we would be sure to see them; but nothing could

express the amazement and surprise I was in, when the very first man

that came out I knew to be my Lancashire husband, the same who lived so

well at Dunstable, and the same who I afterwards saw at Brickhill, when

I was married to my last husband, as has been related.

I was struck dumb at the sight, and knew neither what to say nor what

to do; he did not know me, and that was all the present relief I had.

I quitted my company, and retired as much as that dreadful place

suffers anybody to retire, and I cried vehemently for a great while.

'Dreadful creature that I am,' said I, 'how may poor people have I made

miserable? How many desperate wretches have I sent to the devil?' He

had told me at Chester he was ruined by that match, and that his

fortunes were made desperate on my account; for that thinking I had

been a fortune, he was run into debt more than he was able to pay, and

that he knew not what course to take; that he would go into the army

and carry a musket, or buy a horse and take a tour, as he called it;

and though I never told him that I was a fortune, and so did not

actually deceive him myself, yet I did encourage the having it thought

that I was so, and by that means I was the occasion originally of his

mischief.

The surprise of the thing only struck deeper into my thoughts, any gave

me stronger reflections than all that had befallen me before. I

grieved day and night for him, and the more for that they told me he

was the captain of the gang, and that he had committed so many

robberies, that Hind, or Whitney, or the Golden Farmer were fools to

him; that he would surely be hanged if there were no more men left in

the country he was born in; and that there would abundance of people

come in against him.