CHAPTER SIX

The next morning, I opened the window to look out at the small village when I saw three gentlemen ride by and go into a nearby inn. I was shocked to discover that one of the men was my last husband, with whom I had had a child. I was frightened, as I knew his clothes, his horse, and his face quite well. I immediately closed the window, but looked out again several times before the three men quickly departed, as I was curious to find out his reason for coming to the village. That evening, the town was alarmed to discover that a carriage coming into town was robbed of 560 pounds shortly after the three men left the town. Several police officers came into the town to find out about the men. I announced, however, that I knew one of the gentlemen quite well, and knew he was no robber, but rather a wealthy gentleman from nearby.

We did, indeed, leave for London the next day. When we arrived at my husband's home, I was delighted to see that my husband had quite a lovely house, filled with many wealthy treasures. How different my life would be. I would live honestly and be an excellent wife; I would have a life of pleasure! I sincerely regretted cheating him, and promised to never cheat him again.

We lived together quite pleasantly for five years. He was a quiet, sensible, sincere man, and worked hard at his business. I decided that I must not spend great amounts of money foolishly, as I had in the past. I chose now to live quietly with my family, and paid a great deal of attention to my husband and children; and this kind of life became a pleasure to me.

After five calm years, however, my husband lost a great deal of our fortune to a partner in his business, who had cheated him. My husband was quite upset about this loss, although I explained that he would easily make the fortune again. He did not listen, however, and soon became ill and died. I was desperate, as our fortune was gone and I now had two children to care for. I was now forty-eight years old, and no longer looked like a young beauty that could easily become a mistress to be taken care of. I had no friend to comfort or advise me; I sat and cried day and night. I lived two years this way, crying continually over my unfortunate situation.

I had sold my house and many of my things to save a bit of money, but feared that my little fortune would soon be gone, and I would be nothing but a poor old woman with no home. I thought of this quite often with terror. One afternoon, I was wandering about the town, worrying about my poor situation when I was walking past a clothing shop. I noticed that near the door of the shop was a great deal of expensive cloth, and the shopkeeper was not nearby. I walked into the shop, carefully took the cloth from the table near the door, and walked out. I was rather upset for having become a criminal, but had no choice; if I continued to live an honest life, I would soon have no home, and would soon die with no food. I walked away quickly, terrified that I was now a thief, and no longer an honest gentleman's wife.

"Lord," I said to myself as I cried, "what am I now? A thief! I shall soon be taken to Newgate and killed!"

I continued this way, as I greatly feared that if I did not become a thief, I would soon be poor, with no way to buy a little bread to eat. I regretted having to steal, but I had no other way to live.

Some time later, I was walking through the streets of London when I saw a young child walking alone. I began walking next to the child, speaking kindly, and explaining that I would take the dear child home. While talking to the child, I took her necklace of gold beads, but the child never noticed; I then left quietly. I was quite pleased with myself for finding such a treasure; my fears of poverty surpassed my desire to be honest and sincere. This necklace was worth nearly twelve or fourteen pounds. After this adventure, I attempted many more robberies, and was not caught, although I worried that I would be caught and go immediately to Newgate to be killed for my dishonesty.

I stole many things from people, but did not know where to trade my goods for money. Although I had several things I had obtained from robberies, I had very little money left, and had to tell my dear child's nurse that I could no longer send her the five pounds each year that I had promised. I went to see my old nurse, and told her of my situation. She told me not to worry about my dear child, as he was well-taken care of by his nurse, who would continue to treat him well. During the visit, I explained that I had very little money left, but had several pieces of silver, cloth, and other goods to sell, but did not know where to go for a good price. I did not tell her where the goods had come from, though. She told me that she knew someone who often bought such goods, and she would help me sell my things to him.

I found that my dear nurse was quite useful to me, and could possibly help me with finding a job, as I would happily find honest employment if I could find it. She, unfortunately, had no employment to offer. She invited me at last to come live at her house till I could find something to do; I gladly accepted her offer. My nurse knew of my secret robberies, as she realised that many of the goods I had were not mine. After discovering that I was not an honest gentlewoman, she encouraged me more often to go out to steal. She often did business with such people.

My nurse found a woman to teach me to steal clothing from stores, steal boos, and take off gold watches from ladies' wrists. After some time, she became my partner in robberies, and we became quite rich, stealing a great deal, which pleased my nurse. My partner had been a thief for many years, and no longer felt guilty in stealing. Some time later, I, too, no longer felt guilty about being a thief. Of course, I believe that if I had found honest work, I would not have become a thief. We became rich through our dangerous work, and continued, although we had quite a fortune to live on. I decided that I would continue as a thief until I had a fortune of four or five hundred times, after which I would retire.

After many robberies with my partner, the police caught her after a particularly dangerous adventure. She was sent to Newgate and was sentenced to death, as she had committed other crimes, and had gone to prison already. Before she was killed, I went to see her to comfort her while in prison. The experience of going to Newgate, my frightening birthplace, scared me a great deal, and I could not bear to visit the place any longer. Soon enough, my friend was killed; I should have stopped my stealing then, but I refused, although I had a fortune of over 200 pounds.

One evening, I was walking through a nearby neighbourhood, looking for a robbery opportunity. I soon came to a house that was on fire. I quickly walked in, as the fire was rather small. The maids were yelling and crying, running all over the house. I told one of the servants I came from a nearby house to help remove the treasures of the house to safety. The woman looked grateful for my help, and gave me a great deal of silver, cloth, and other expensive treasures. I carried my prize to my nurse, who was quite pleased with my work, my treasures being worth 24 pounds. This was the greatest and the worst prize I had ever found. I had, indeed, become distrustful and insincere, but I did pity the poor gentlewoman who lost her home and possessions, and was cheated by me, as well. I cried often when I thought of that poor woman. Yet, that robbery encouraged me to continue as a criminal, as I became rather unfeeling after becoming a thief, but was quite careful with each adventure, as I did not wish to die in Newgate like my partner.

I was once walking in a crowd, looking to steal a gentlewoman's gold watch off her wrist. I could not remove the watch from her wrist, however. I became quite frightened, scared that she would discover me behind her, attempting to steal her jewellery. I cried out that someone tried to steal my watch. The crowd stopped, everyone looked around for the thief. Then, the woman yelled that someone had tried to take her watch, as well. When I go out into town as a thief, I always dress quite well in my best clothing and a gold watch on my wrist, and carry at least 20 pounds with me. Soon after I exclaimed that someone had attempted to rob me, several others in the crowd cried the same words. I was now far away from the woman; a young man was soon taken, and the crowd declared that he was the thief. He was immediately taken to the police. After this incident, I was rather frightened and did not steal watches for quite some time.

My nurse, however, encouraged me to continue my robbery adventures. As my dear nurse and I became closer, she explained that she had spent many years stealing, among other manners of work. She had been caught and sent to prison for some time, then to Ireland where she continued her work. She then returned to England to work as a nurse while continuing her dishonest work.

Now I had worked as a thief for nearly five years without being caught by the police and sent to Newgate. Many at Newgate, however, knew my name, as they had heard of my good skills in stealing and cheating others. They all expected that I would soon be caught and sent to Newgate, but I was never caught, though many times I was quite close to being caught.

My greatest danger now was that I was too well-known. Many were angry that I was not in Newgate, and would attempt to cheat me so I would soon be caught and sent to prison. These people knew me as Moll Flanders, which was not my real name, although these other thieves did not know that I once used the name Mrs Flanders.

I was rather worried that I would soon be caught, as I was so well-known among other thieves. I decided to stay indoors for quite some time, refusing to go out as a thief. Finally, my nurse persuaded me to dress as a man to go out stealing with a man my nurse had found. I went with the man usually at night to rob, although he never knew I was not actually a man.

One evening, we were out when we saw five pieces of expensive silk sitting just inside the window. My partner became rather anxious to get the pieces, although I told him we should not, as it was quite a dangerous situation. Yet, he went to fetch the pieces, but someone soon saw him, and yelled, "Thief!"

He began to run, as did I. I ran back to my nurse's home and up the stairs. A crowd of people soon followed, demanding that my nurse open the door, as a man had just run inside. She was quite calm, and explained that there was no man in her house. The crowd became angry and again demanded to look inside. She allowed a police officer to come in to look, but he found nothing, and told the crowd to return home.

My poor partner was taken to Newgate to be killed. He proclaimed that he could find his partner, Gabriel Spencer, but he never could find me. He explained what I looked like and where I stayed, but no one could find me. I had never told my partner where I actually lived, but had always gone somewhere else so he would not know my true identity.

I was quite uneasy after this event, and decided to move to the countryside for some time, worried that I would be found and sent to Newgate. I stayed in the countryside for five weeks before my nurse sent me a message that my partner had been killed in Newgate. I was delighted, although I pitied him for the terrible end to his life. Although I was terribly frightened of being caught, I still continued as a thief after my partner was killed.

Some time later, I had a new partner to help in my robberies. On one occasion, I stole some expensive material from a clothing shop, but the shop owner noticed that I took the material, so I handed it to my partner quickly before we ran in opposite directions. She was caught with the material and was sent to Newgate; I was never caught. As many of my partners were often caught and sent to Newgate, I never told anyone my real name, which saved me from Newgate. I felt terribly guilty for her misfortune in going to Newgate. I often sent her money and food after she was sent to Newgate. I obtained information about her situation, and paid great attention to what would happen to the poor thing. She pleaded that she had not stolen the material, but that I, Mrs Flanders, had given it to her as we ran from the shop. The court decided not to kill her, as she was, in fact, not the original thief. She was then sent to America to work as a servant for several years.

I must repeat it again that this poor woman's situation was quite troublesome to me, as I was the reason she was sent to Newgate. However, I realised that my life would be in serious danger if anyone were to find out my name to be Moll Flanders. When I discovered that she would not be killed, I was content to find out that she would be taken to America, and therefore, I would no longer be worried that she might again find me.

For some time I did not leave my nurse's house as a thief. After a while, however, I began to go out for simple robberies again. I sometimes dressed as a maid or would wait near the ships to see what goods were coming from abroad. On one occasion, I went near a ship that had just returned to London from abroad. I noticed that a box full of expensive clothing and materials had just come in. I then wrote a letter from Mr John Richardson to his dear cousin, Jemmy Cole in London, explaining that Mr John Richardson's mother would take the materials to him. I brought this letter to the ship workers to explain that Mr Richardson had sent me, his aunt, to collect his things that had come on the ship.

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