have anywife put her in mind of the other deity, with whom he had no acquaintance.

ANOTHER remarkable incident was, that during her whole pregnancy fhe conftantly longed for every thing fhe faw; nor could be fatisfied with her with, unleis fhe enjoyed it clandeftinely; and as nature, by true and accurate obfervers, is remarked to give us no appetites without furnishing us with the means of gratifying them; fo had fhe at this time a moft marvellous glutinous quality attending her fingers, to which, as to birdlime, every thing closely adhered that she handled.

To omit other ftories, fome of which may be perhaps the growth of fuperftition, we proceed to the birth of our hero, who made his first appearance on this great theatre, the very day when the plague firft broke out in 1665. Some fay his mother was delivered of him in a houfe of an orbicular or round form in Covent-Garden; but of this we are not certain. He was fome years afterwards baptized by the famous Mr. Titus Oates.

NOTHING very remarkable pafs'd in the years of infancy, fave, that as the letters Th are the most difficult of pronunciation, and the laft which a child attains to the utterance of, fo they were the first that came with any readiness from young mafter Wild. Nor muft we omit the early indications which he gave of the fweetness of his temper; for tho' he was by no means to be terrified into compliance, yet might he by a fugar-plum be brought to your purpofe; indeed, to fay the truth, he was to be brib'd to any thing, which made many fay, he was certainly born to be a Great Man.

He was fcarce fettled at school before he gave marks of his lofty and afpiring temper; and was regarded by all his fchool-fellows with that deference, which men generally pay to thofe fuperior genius's who will exact it of them. If an orchard was to be robh'd, Wild was consulted, and tho' he was himself seldom concerned in the execution of the defign, yet was he always concerter of it, and treasurer of the booty; fome little part of which he would now and then, with wonderful

wonderful generofity, beftow on those who took it. He was generally very fecret on thefe occafions; but if any offered to plunder of his own head, without acquainting Mafter Wild, and making a depofite of the booty, he was fure to have an information against him lodged with the fchool-mafter, and to be feverely Funifhed for his pains.

He difcovered fo little attention to school-learning, that his mafter, who was a very wife and worthy man, foon gave over all care and trouble on that account, and acquainting his parents that their fon proceeded extremely well in his ftudies, he permitted his pupil. to follow his own inclinations, perceiving they led him to nobler pursuits than the fcience; which are generally acknowledged to be a very unprofitable ftudy, and indeed greatly to hinder the advancement of men in the world; but tho' master Wild was not esteemed. the readiest at making his exercife, he was univerfally allowed to be the most dexterous at stealing it of all his school-fellows: being never detected in fuch furtive compofitions, nor indeed in any other exercitations of his great talents, which all inclined the fame way, but once, when he had laid violent hands on a book called Gradus ad Parnaffum, i. e. A ftep towards Parnaffus; on which account his mafter, who was a man of moft wonderful wit and fagacity, is faid to have told him, he withed it might not prove in the event Gradus ad Patibulum, i. e. Aftep towards the galloaus.

BUT tho' he would not give himself the pains requifite to acquire a competent fufficiency in the learned languages, yet did he readily liften with attention to others, especially when they tranflated the claffical authors to him; nor was he in the leaft backward, at all fuch times, to exprefs his approbation. He was wonderfully pleafed with that paffage in the eleventh Iliad, where Achilles is faid to have bound two fons of Priam upon a mountain, and afterwards to have releafed them for a fum of money. This was, he said, alone fufficient to refute those who affected a contempt for the wisdom of the ancients, and an undeniable teftimony

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teftimony of the great antiquity of* Priggifm. He was ravished with the account which Neftor gives in the fame book, of the rich booty which he bore off (¿. e. stole) from the Eleans. He was defirous of having this often repeated to him, and, at the end of every repetition, he constantly fetched a deep figh, and faid, It was a glorious booty.

WHEN the ftory of Cacus was read to him out of the eighth Æneid, he generously pitied the unhappy fate of that great man, to whom he thought Hercules much too fevere: one of his fchool-fellows commending the dexterity of drawing the oxen backward by their tails into his den, he fmiled, and with fome difdain, faid, He could have taught him a better way.

He was a paffionate admirer of heroes, particularly of Alexander the Great, between whom and the late King of Sweden he would frequently draw pa rallels. He was much delighted with the accounts of the Czar's retreat from the latter, who carried off the inhabitants of great cities to people his own country. This, he faid, was not once thought of by Alexander; but, added, perhaps he did not want them.

HAPPY had it been for him, if he had confined himself to this fphere; but his chief, if not only blemish was, that he would fometimes, from an humility in his nature too pernicious to true greatnefs, condefcend to an intimacy with inferior things and perfons. Thus the Spanish rogue was his favourite book, and the Cheats of Scapin his favourite play.

THE young gentleman being now at the age of feventeen, his father, from a foolish prejudice to our universities, and out of a falfe, as well as exceffive regard to his morals, brought his fon to town, where he refided with him till he was of an age to travel. Whilft he was here, all imaginable care was taken of his inftructions, his father endeavouring his utmost to inculcate principles of honour and gentility into his fon.

CHAP.

* This word in the cant languages fignifies thievery.

CHA P. IV.

Mr. Wild's firft entrance into the world. His acquaintance with Count La Rufe.

A

N accident happened foon after his arrival in town, which almoft faved the father his whole labour on this head, and provided master Wild a better tutor than any after care or expence could have furnished him with. The old gentleman, it seems, was a FOLLOWER of the fortunes of Mr. Snap, fon of Mr. Geoffry Snap, whom we have before mentioned to have enjoyed a reputable office under the sheriff of London and Middlefex, the daughter of which Geoffry had intermarried with the Wilds. Mr. Snap the younger, being thereto well warranted, had laid violent hands on, or, as the vulgar exprefs it, arrefted one count La Rufe, a man of confiderable figure in those days, and had confined him to his own house, till he could find two feconds, who would in a formal manner give their words that the Count fhould, at a certain day and place appointed, anfwer all that one Thomas Thimble a taylor had to fay to him; which Thomas Thimble, it feems, alledged that the Count had, according to the law of the realm, made over his body to him as a fecurity for fome fuits of cloaths to him delivered by the faid Thomas Thimble. Now, as the Count, tho' perfectly a man of honour, could not immediately find thefe feconds, he was obliged for fome time to refide at Mr. Snap's houfe: for it seems the law of the land is, that whoever owes another rol. or indeed 2 1. may be, on the oath of that perfon, immediately taken up and carried away from his own houfe and family, and kept abroad till he is made to owe 501. whether he will or no; for which he is, perhaps, afterwards obliged to lie in gaol; and all these without any trial had, or any other evidence of the debt than the abovefaid oath, which if untrue, as it often happens, you have no remedy againft the perjurer; he was, forfooth! mistaken.

Bur though Mr. Snap would not, (as perhaps by the nice rules of honour he was obliged) difcharge the

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Count

1

Count on his parole; yet did he not, as by the ftrict rules of law he was enabled, confine him to his chamber. The Count had his liberty of the whole houfe, and Mr. Snap ufing only the precaution of keeping his doors well locked and barred, took his prifoner's word that he would not go forth.

MR. Snap had by his fecond lady two daughters, who were now in the bloom of their youth and beauty.. These young ladies, like damfels in romance, compaffionated the captive Count, and endeavoured by all means to make his confinement lefs irksome to him ; which, though they were both very beautiful, they could not attain by any other way fo effectually, as by engaging with him at cards, in which contentions, as will appear hereafter, the Count was greatly skil, ful.

As whisk and fwabbers was the game then in the chief vogue, they were obliged to look for a fourth perfon, in order to make up their parties. Mr. Snaphimfelf would fometimes relax his mind from the vio lent fatigues of his employment, by these recreations; and fometimes a neighbouring young gentleman, or lady, came in to their affiftance: but the most fre-. quent guest was young mafter Wild, who had been educated from his infancy with the Mifs Snaps, and was, by all the neighbours, allotted for the hufband of Mifs Tifhy, or Lætitia, the younger of the two; for though, being his coufin-german, fhe was, perhaps, in the eye of a ftrict confcience, fomewhat too nearly related to him; yet the old people on both fides, though. fufficiently fcrupulous in nice matters, agreed to overlook this objection.

MEN of great genius as eafily discover.one another as free mafons can.. It was therefore no wonder that the Count foon conceived an inclination to an intimacy with our young hero, whose vaft abilities could not be concealed from one of the Count's difcernment; for though this latter was fo expert at his cards, that he was proverbially faid to play the whole game, he was no match for master Wild, who, inexperienced as he was, notwithstanding all the art, the dexterity, and often the fortune of his adverfary, never failed to

fend