dence. Sly approved Mr. Wild's opinion, went directly to a magistrate, and was by him committed to the Gatehouse, with a promise of being admitted evidence against his companion.

Fierce was, in a few days, brought to his trial at the Old Baily, where, to his great confusion, his old friend Sly appeared against him, as did Miss Straddle. His only hopes were now in the assistances which our hero had promised him. These unhappily failed him : so that the evidence being plain against him, and he making no defence, the jury convicted him, the court condemned him, and Mr. Ketch executed him.

With such infinite address did this truly Great Man know to play with the passions of men, to set them at variance with each other, and to work his own purposes out of those jealousies and apprehensions, which he was wonderfully ready at creating by means of those great arts which the vulgar call treachery, dissembling, promising, lying, falsehood, &c. but which are by great men summed up in the collective name of policy, or politics, or rather pollitrics; an art of which, as it is the highest excellence of human nature, perhaps our Great Man was the most eminent master.

CHAPTER VI.
Of Hats.

WILD had now got together a very considerable gang, composed of undone gamesters, ruined bailiffs, broken tradesmen, idle apprentices, attorneys' clerks, and loose and disorderly youth, who being born to no fortune, nor bred to any trade or profession, were willing to live luxuriously without labour. As these persons wore different principles, i. e. hats, frequent dissentions grew among them. There were particularly two parties, viz. those who wore hats fiercely cocked, and those who preferred the nab or trencher hat, with the brim flapping over their eyes. The former were called Cavaliers and Tory Rory Ranter Boys, &c. The latter went by the several namės

of Wags, Roundheads, Shakebags, Oldnolls, and several others. Between these, continual jars arose; insomuch that they grew in time to think there was something essential in their differences, and that their interests were incompatible with each other, whereas, in truth, the difference lay only in the fashion of their hats. Wild, therefore, having assembled them all at an alehouse on the night after Fierce's execution, and perceiving evident marks of their misunderstanding, from their behaviour to each other, addressed them in the following gentle, but forcible manner. * 'Gentlemen, I am ashamed to see men embarked in so great and glorious an undertaking, as that of robbing the public, so foolishly and weakly dissenting among themselves. Do you think the first inventors of Hats, or at least of the distinctions between them, really conceived that one form of Hats should inspire a man with divinity, another with law, another with learning, or another with bravery? No, they meant no

* There is something very mysterious in this speech, which probably that chapter written by Aristotle on this subject, which is mentioned by a French author, might have given some light into; but that is unhappily among the lost works of that philosopher. It is remarkable, that Galerus, which is Latin for a Hat, signifies likewise a Dog-fish, as the Greek word Kuvin doth the skin of that animal: of which I suppose the hats or helmets of the ancients were composed, as ours at present are of the beaver or rabbit. Sophocles, in the latter end of his Ajax, alludes to a method of cheating in hats, and the scholiast on the place tells us of one Crephontes, who was master of the art. It is observable likewise, that Achilles, in the first Iliad of Homer, tells Agamemnon in anger that he had dog's eyes. Now, as the eyes of a dog are handsomer than those almost of any other animal, this could be no term of reproach. He must therefore mean that he had a hat on, which, perhaps, from the creature it was made of, or from some other reason, might have been a mark of infamy. This superstitious opinion may account for that custom, which hath descended through all nations, of showing respect by pulling off this covering; and that no man is esteemed fit to converse with his superiors with it on. I shall conclude this learned note with remarking, that the term Old Hat, is at present used by the vulgar in no very honourable sense.

more by these outward signs, than to impose on the vul gar, and instead of putting great men to the trouble of acquiring or maintaining the substance, to make it sufficient that they condescend to wear the type or shadow of it.You do wisely, therefore, when in a crowd, to amuse the mob by quarrels on such accounts, that, while they are listening to your jargon, you may with the greater ease and safety, pick their pockets: but surely to be in earnest, and privately to keep up such a ridiculous contention among yourselves, must argue the highest folly and absurdity. When you know you are all Prigs, what difference can a broad or a narrow brim create? Is a Prig less a Prig in one hat than in another? If the public should be weak enough to interest themselves in your quarrels, and to prefer one pack to the other, while both are aiming at their purses; it is your business to laugh at, not imitate their folly. What can be more ridiculous than for gentlemen to quarrel about hats, when there is not one among you whose hat is worth a farthing. What is the use of a hat, further than to keep the head warm, or to hide a bald crown from the public? It is the mark of a gentleman to move his hat on every occasion; and in courts and noble assemblies, no man ever wears one. Let me hear no more therefore of this childish disagreement, but all toss up your hats together with one accord, and consider that hat as the best, which will contain the largest booty.' He thus ended his speech, which was followed by a murmuring applause, and immediately all present tossed their hats together as he had commanded them.

CHAPTER VII.

Showing the consequence which attended Heartfree's adventures with Wild; all natural, and common enough to little wretches who deal with Great Men; together with some precedents of letters, being the different methods of answering a Dun.

LET

ET us now return to Heart free, to whom the Count's

note, which he had paid away, was returned, with an account that the drawer was not to be found, and that, inquiring after him, they had heard he was run away, and consequently the money was now demanded of the indorser. The apprehension of such a loss would have affected any man of business, but much more one whose unavoidable ruin it must prove. He expressed so much concern and confusion on this occasion that the proprietor of the note was frightened, and resolved to lose no time in securing what he could. So that, in the afternoon of the same day, Mr. Snap was commissioned to pay Heartfree a visit, which he did with his usual formality, and conveyed him to his own house.

Mrs. Hearifree was no sooner informed of what had happened to her husband, than she raved like one distracted; but after she had vented the first agonies of her passion in tears and lamentations, she applied herself to all possible means to procure her husband's liberty. She hastened to beg her neighbour to secure bail for him. But as the news had arrived at their houses before her, she found none of them at home, except an honest Quaker, whose servants durst not tell a lie. However, she succeeded no better with him, for unluckily he had made an affirmation the day before, that he would never be bail for any man. After many fruitless efforts of this kind, she repaired to her husband to comfort him at least with her presence. She found him sealing the last of several letters, which he was despatching to his friends and creditors. The moment be saw her, a sudden joy sparkled in his eyes, which, however, had a very short duration; for despair soon closed them again; nor could he help bursting into some passionate expressions of concern for her and his little family; which she, on her part, did her utmost to lessen, by endeavouring to mitigate the loss, and to raise in him hopes from the Count, who might, she said, be possibly only gone into the country. She comforted him likewise, with the expectation of favour from his acquaintance, especially from those whom

he had in a particular manner obliged and served. Lastly, she conjured him, by all the value and esteem he professed for her, not to endanger his health, on which alone depended her happiness, by too great an indulgence of grief; assuring him that no state of life could appear unhappy to her with him, unless his own sorrow or discontent made it so.

In this manner did this weak, poor-spirited woman attempt to relieve her husband's pains, which it would have rather become her to aggravate by not only painting out his misery in the liveliest colours imaginable, but by upbraiding him with that folly and confidence which had occasioned it, and by lamenting her own hard fate, in being obliged to share his sufferings.

Heartfree returned this goodness (as it is called) of his wife, with the warmest gratitude, and they passed an hour in a scene of tenderness too low and contemptible to be recounted to our great readers.-We shall therefore omit all such relations, as they tend only to make human nature low and ridiculous.

Those messengers who had obtained any answers to his letters now returned. We shall here copy a few of them, as they may serve for precedents to others who have an occasion, which happens commonly enough in genteel life, to answer the impertinence of a Dun.

MR. HEARTFREE,

LETTER I.

My Lord commands me to tell you he is very much surprised at your assurance in asking for money, which you know hath been so little while due'; however, as he intends to deal no longer at your shop, he hath ordered me to pay you as soon as I shall have cash in hand, which, considering many disbursements for bills long due, &c. can't possibly promise any time, &c. at present. And am Your humble servant,

ROGER MORECRAFT.