feek only the efcape from temporal punishment, "but can be of no fervice to excufe me to that Being "whom I chiefly fear offending; nay, it would great ly aggravate my guilt by fo impudent an endeavour to impofe upon him, and by fo wickedly involving others in my crime. Give me therefore no more "advice of this kind; for this is my great comfort "in all my afflictions, that it is in the power of no "enemy to rob me of my confcience, nor will Lever "be fo much my own enemy as to injure it." THOUGH Our hero heard all this with proper contempt, he made no direct anfwer; but endeavoured to evade this propofal as much as poffible, which he did with admirable dexterity: this method of getting tolerably well off, when you are repulfed in your attack on a man's confcience may be ftiled the art of retreating, in which the politician, as well as the general, hath fometimes a wonderful opportunity of difplaying his great abilities in his profeffion. WILD, having made this admirable retreat, and argued away all defign of involving his friend in the guilt of murder, concluded however, that he thought him rather too fcrupulous in not attempting his efcape; and then promifing to use all fuch means as the other would permit, in his fervice, took his leave for the prefent. Heartfree, having indulged himself an hour. with his children, repaired to reft, which he enjoyed quiet and undisturbed; whilft Wild, difdaining repofe, fat up all night confulting how he might bring, about the final deftruction of his friend, without being beholden to any affiftance from himself; which he now defpaired of procuring. With the refult of the fe confultations we shall acquaint our reader in good time; but at prefent we have matters of much more confequence to relate to him. CHAP. VI. The event of Fireblood's adventure, and a treaty of marriage, which might have been concluded either at Smithfield or St. James's. IREBLOOD returned from his enterprize unfuccefsful. The gentleman happened to go home another way than he had intended; fo that the whole defign defign miscarried. Fireblood had indeed robbed the coach, and had wantonly discharged a piftol into it, which flightly wounded one of the paffengers in the arm. The booty he met with was not very confiderable, tho' much greater than that with which he acquainted Wild; for, of eleven pounds in money, two filver watches, and a wedding-ring, he produced no more than two guineas and the ring, which he protefted with numberlefs oaths was his whole booty However, when an advertisement of the robbery was published, with a reward promised for the ring and the watches; Fireblood was obliged to confefs the whole, and to acquaint our hero where he had pawned the watches; which Wild, taking the full value of them for his pains, restored to the right owner. He did not fail catechifing his young friend on this occafion. He faid, he was forry to fee any of his gang guilty of a breach of honour; that without ho nour Priggery was at an end; that if a Prig had but honour, he would overlook every vice in the world. "But, nevertheless, faid he, I will forgive you this "time, as you are a hopeful lad; and I hope never "afterwards to find you delinquent in this great "point." WILD had now. brought his gang to great regularity: he was obeyed and feared by them all. He had likewife eftablished an office, where all men who were robbed, paying the value only (or a little more) of their goods, might have them again. This was of notable ufe to feveral perfons who had loft pieces of. plate they had received from their grand-mothers; to others who had a particular value for certain rings, watches, heads of canes, fnuff-boxes, &c. for which they would not have taken twenty times as much as they were worth, either because they had them a lit tle while or a long time, or that fomebody effe had them before, or from fome other fuch excellent reafon, which often stamps a greater value on a toy, than the great Bubble-boy himself would have the impudence to fet upon it. By thefe means, he feemed in fo promifing a way of procuring a fortune, and was regarded in fo thriv 7 ing a light by all the gentleman of his acquaintance, as by the keeper and turnkeys of Newgate, by Mr. Snap and others of his occupation, that Mr. Snap one day, taking Mr. Wild the elder afide, very feriously propofed what they had often lightly talked over, a ftrict union between their families, by marrying his daughter Tifhy to our hero. This propofal was very readily accepted by the old gentleman, who promifed to acquaint his fon with it. ON the morrow, on which this meffage was to be delivered, our hero, little dreaming of the happiness which, of its own accord, was advancing fo near towards him, had called Fireblood to him; and, after informing that youth of the violence of his paffion for the young lady, and affuring him what confidence he repofed in him and his honour, he difpatched him to Mifs Tifhy with the following letter; which we here infert, not only as we take it to be extremely curious, but to be a much better pattern for that epiftolary kind of writing, which is generally called Love-letters, than. any to be found in the academy of compliments, and which we challenge all the beaus of our time to excel either in mattter or spelling. "Moft deivine and adwhorable creeture, "" DOUBT not but thofe IIs, briter than the fon, I which have kindled fuch a flam in my hart, have likewife the faculty of feeing it. It would. be the hieft preaffumption to imagin you eggnorant. of my loav. No, Madam, I föllemly purteft, that of all the butys in the univarfal glob, there is nonekapable of hateracting my IIs like you. Corts and. pallaces would be to me deferts without your kumσε pany, and with it a wilderness would have more "charms than haven itfelf. For I hop you will beleve me when Ifware every place in the univarfe is a haven with you, I am konvinced you must be finfibel of my violent paffion for you, which, if I en"devored to hid it, would be as impoffible as for you, or the fon to hide your buty's.. I affure you I have not flept a wipk fince I had the hapnefs of feeing 66 feeing you laft; therefore hop you will, out of "Kumpaffion, let me have the honour of feeing you "this afternune; for I am with the greatest ad"whoration, "Moft deivine creeture, "Iour most paffionate amirer, JONATHAN WYLD. In the fpelling of this letter be not fo ftrictly orthographical, the reader will he pleafed to remember, that fuch a defect might be worthy of cenfure in a low and fcholaftic character; but can be no blemish in that fublime greatnefs, of which we endeavour to raife a complete idea in this hiftory. In which kind of compofition, fpelling, or indeed any kind of human literature, hath never been thought a neceffary ingredient; for if thefe fort of great perfonages can but complot and contrive their noble fchemes, and hack and hew mankind fufficiently, there will never be wanting fit and able perfons who can fpell, to record their praises. Again, if it fhould be obferved, that the ftile of this letter doth not exactly correfpond with that of our hero's speeches, which we have here recorded, we answer, it is fufficient if in these the hiftorian adheres faithfully to the matter, though he embellishes the diction with fome flourishes of his own' eloquence, without which the excellent fpeeches recorded in antient hiftorians (particularly in Sallusty would have scarce been found in their writings. Nay, even amongst the moderns, famous as they are for élocution, it may be doubted whether thofe inimitable harangues, published in the monthly Magazines, came literally from the mouths of the HURGOS, &c. as they are there inferted, or whether we may not rather fuppofe fome hiftorian of great eloquence hath borrowed the matter only, and adorned it with those rhetorical flowers for which many of the faid HURGOS are not fo extremely eminent. CHA P. Matters preliminary to the marriage between Mr. Jonathan Wild and the chafte Lætitia. UT to proceed with our hiftory: Fireblood, have ing received this letter, and promised on his ho-nour, with many voluntary affeverations, to discharge his embaffy faithfully, went to vifit the fair Lætitia. The lady having opened the letter, and read it, put on an air of difdain, and told Mr. Fireblood fhe could. not conceive what Mr. Wild meant by troubling her with his impertinence; he begged him to carry the letter back again, faying, had the known from whom it came, 'fhe would have been d-d before she had opened it. "But with you, young gentleman, fays fhe, Lam not in the least angry. I am rather forry "that fo pretty a young man should be employed in "fuch an errand." "" She accompanied thefe words with fo tender an accent, and fo wanton a leer, that Fireblood, who was no backward youth, began to take her by the hand, and proceeded fo warmly, that, to imitate his actions with the rapidity of our narration, he in a few minutes ravished this fair creature, or at least would have ravished her, if fhe had not, by a timely compliance, prevented him.. FIREBLOOD, after he had ravished as much as her could, returned to Wild, and acquainted him, as faras any wife man would, with what had paffed; concluding with many praifes of the young lady's beauty, with whom, he faid, if his honour would have permitted him, he should himself have fallen in love; : but, dn him, if he would not fooner be torn in pieces by wild horfes, than even think of injuring his friend. He afferted indeed, and fwore fo heartily, that had not Wild been so thoroughly convinced of the impregnable chastity of the lady, he might have suspected his fuccefs: however, he was, by these means, entirely fatisfied of his friend's inclination towards his mistress. `THUS constituted were the love affairs of our hero, when his father brought him Mr. Snap's propofal. The reader must know very little of love, or indeed: of any thing elfe, if he requires any information con cerning |