at each other; for though it was signed by all the executors, yet they
did not know the substance of it till it was publicly read, excepting
the chaplain; and he, as I mentioned before, had told me the codicil had
better never have been added.
I was now in a fine dilemma; had the title of a countess, with £500, and
nothing else to subsist on but a very good wardrobe of clothes, which
were not looked upon by my son and the executors to be my late lord's
property, and which were worth, indeed, more than treble the sum I had
left me.
I immediately removed from the lodgings, and left them to bury the body
when they thought proper, and retired to a lodging at a private
gentleman's house, about a mile from The Hague. I was now resolved to
find out Amy, being, as it were, at liberty; and accordingly went to the
house where she had lived, and finding that empty, inquired for her
among the neighbours, who gave various accounts of what had become of
her; but one of them had a direction left at his house where she might
be found. I went to the place and found the house shut up, and all the
windows broken, the sign taken down, and the rails and benches pulled
from before the door. I was quite ashamed to ask for her there, for it
was a very scandalous neighbourhood, and I concluded that Amy had been
brought to low circumstances, and had kept a house of ill-fame, and was
either run away herself, or was forced to it by the officers of justice.
However, as nobody knew me here, I went into a shop to buy some trifles,
and asked who had lived in the opposite house (meaning Amy's). "Really,
madam," says the woman, "I do not well know; but it was a woman who kept
girls for gentlemen; she went on in that wickedness for some time, till
a gentleman was robbed there of his watch and a diamond ring, on which
the women were all taken up, and committed to the house of correction;
but the young ones are now at liberty, and keep about the town." "Pray,"
said I, "what may have become of the old beast that could be the ruin of
those young creatures?" "Why, I do not well know," says she; "but I have
heard that, as all her goods were seized upon, she was sent to the
poorhouse; but it soon after appearing that she had the French disease
to a violent degree, was removed to a hospital to be taken care of, but
I believe she will never live to come out; and if she should be so
fortunate, the gentleman that was robbed, finding that she was the
guilty person, intends to prosecute her to the utmost rigour of the
law."
I was sadly surprised to hear this character of Amy; for I thought
whatever house she might keep, that the heyday of her blood had been
over. But I found that she had not been willing to be taken for an old
woman, though near sixty years of age; and my not seeing or hearing from
her for some time past was a confirmation of what had been told me.
I went home sadly dejected, considering how I might hear of her. I had
known her for a faithful servant to me, in all my bad and good fortune,
and was sorry that at the last such a miserable end should overtake her,
though she, as well as I, deserved it several years before.
A few days after I went pretty near the place I had heard she was, and
hired a poor woman to go and inquire how Amy ---- did, and whether she
was likely to do well. The woman returned, and told me that the matron,
or mistress, said, the person I inquired after died in a salivation two
days before, and was buried the last night in the cemetery belonging to
the hospital.
I was very sorry to hear of Amy's unhappy and miserable death; for when
she came first into my service she was really a sober girl, very witty
and brisk, but never impudent, and her notions in general were good,
till my forcing her, as it were, to have an intrigue with the jeweller.
She had also lived with me between thirty and forty years, in the
several stages of life as I had passed through; and as I had done
nothing but what she was privy to, so she was the best person in the
universal world to consult with and take advice from, as my
circumstances now were.
I returned to my lodgings much chagrined, and very disconsolate; for as
I had for several years lived at the pinnacle of splendour and
satisfaction, it was a prodigious heart-break to me now to fall from
upwards of £3000 per annum to a poor £500 principal.
A few days after this I went to see my son, the Earl of Wintselsheim. He
received me in a very courteous (though far from a dutiful) manner. We
talked together near an hour upon general things, but had no particular
discourse about my late lord's effects, as I wanted to have. Among
other things he told me that his guardians had advised him to go to the
university for four years longer, when he would come of age, and his
estate would be somewhat repaired; to which he said he had agreed; and
for that purpose all the household goods and equipages were to be
disposed of the next week, and the servants dismissed. I immediately
asked if it would be looked upon as an encroachment upon his father's
will if I took Isabel (who had been my waiting-maid ever since I came
from England) to live with me. "No, my lady," very readily replied he;
"as she will be dismissed from me, she is certainly at liberty and full
freedom to do for herself as soon and in the best manner she possibly
can." After this I stayed about a quarter of an hour with him, and then
I sent for Isabel, to know if she would come and live with me on her
dismission from her lord's. The girl readily consented, for I had always
been a good mistress to her; and then I went to my own lodgings in my
son's coach, which he had ordered to be got ready to carry me home.
Isabel came, according to appointment, about ten days after, and told me
the house was quite cleared both of men and movables, but said her lord
(meaning my son) was not gone to the university as yet, but was at one
of his guardians' houses, where he would stay about a month, and that he
intended to make a visit before his departure, which he did, attended by
my late chaplain; and I, being in handsome lodgings, received them with
all the complaisance and love as was possible, telling them that time
and circumstances having greatly varied with me, whatever they saw amiss
I hoped they would be so good as to look over it at that time, by
considering the unhappy situation of my affairs.
After this visit was over, and I had myself and Isabel to provide for,
handsome lodgings to keep (which were as expensive as they were fine),
and nothing but my principal money to live on (I mean what I happened to
have in my pocket at my lord's death, for I had not been paid my £500 as
yet), I could not manage for a genteel maintenance as I had done some
years before. I thought of divers things to lay my small sums out to
advantage, but could fix on nothing; for it always happens that when
people have but a trifle, they are very dubious in the disposal of it.
Having been long resolving in my mind, I at last fixed on merchandise as
the most genteel and profitable of anything else. Accordingly I went to
a merchant who was intimate with my late lord, and letting him know how
my circumstances were, he heartily condoled with me, and told me he
could help me to a share in two ships--one was going a trading voyage to
the coast of Africa, and the other a-privateering. I was now in a
dilemma, and was willing to have a share in the trader, but was dubious
of being concerned in the privateer; for I had heard strange stories
told of the gentlemen concerned in that way of business. Nay, I had
been told, but with what certainty I cannot aver, that there was a set
of men who took upon them to issue ships, and as they always knew to
what port they are bound, notice was sent to their correspondent abroad
to order out their privateers on the coast the other sailed, and they
knowing the loading, and the numbers of hands and guns were on board,
soon made prizes of the vessels, and the profits were equally divided,
after paying what was paid for their insurance, among them all.
However, I at last resolved, by the merchant's advice, to have a share
in the trader, and the next day he over-persuaded me to have a share in
the privateer also. But that I may not lay out my money before I have
it, it may not be amiss to observe that I went to the executors and
received my £500 at an hour's notice, and then went to the merchant's to
know what the shares would come to, and being told £1500, I was resolved
to raise the money; so I went home, and, with my maid Isabel, in two
days' time disposed of as many of my clothes as fetched me near £1100,
which, joined to the above sum, I carried to the merchant's, where the
writings were drawn, signed, sealed, and delivered to me in the presence
of two witnesses, who went with me for that purpose. The ships were near
ready for sailing; the trader was so well manned and armed, as well as
the privateer, that the partners would not consent to insure them, and
out they both sailed, though from different ports, and I depended on
getting a good estate between them.
When I was about this last ship a letter came from the count, my son,
full of tender expressions of his duty to me, in which I was informed
that he was going again to the university at Paris, where he should
remain four years; after that he intended to make the tour of Europe,
and then come and settle at The Hague. I returned him thanks in a letter
for his compliment, wished him all happiness, and a safe return to
Holland, and desired that he would write to me from time to time that I
might hear of his welfare, which was all I could now expect of him. But
this was the last time I heard from him, or he from me.
In about a month's time the news came that the privateer (which sailed
under British colours, and was divided into eight shares) had taken a
ship, and was bringing it into the Texel, but that it accidentally
foundered, and being chained to the privateer, had, in sinking, like to
have lost that too. Two or three of the hands got on shore, and came to
The Hague; but how terribly I was alarmed any one may judge, when I
heard the ship the privateer had was the Newfoundland merchantman, as I
had bought two shares in out of four. About two months after news was
current about The Hague of a privateer or merchantman, one of them of
the town, though not known which, having an engagement in the
Mediterranean, in which action both the privateer and trader was lost.
Soon after their names were publicly known, and, in the end, my partners
heard that they were our ships, and unhappily sailing under false
colours (a thing often practised in the time of war), and never having
seen each other, had, at meeting, a very smart engagement, each fighting
for life and honour, till two unfortunate shots; one of them, viz., the
privateer, was sunk by a shot between wind and water, and the trader
unhappily blown up by a ball falling in the powder-room. There were only
two hands of the trader, and three of the privateer, that escaped, and
they all fortunately met at one of the partners' houses, where they
confirmed the truth of this melancholy story, and to me a fatal loss.
What was to be done now? I had no money, and but few clothes left;
there, was no hope of subsistence from my son or his guardians; they
were tied down to be spectators of my misfortunes, without affording me
any redress, even if they would.
Isabel, though I was now reduced to the last penny, would live with me
still, and, as I observed before and may now repeat, I was in a pretty
situation to begin the world--upwards of sixty years of age, friendless,
scanty of clothes, and but very little money.
I proposed to Isabel to remove from lodgings and retire to Amsterdam,
where I was not known, and might turn myself into some little way of
business, and work for that bread now which had been too often
squandered away upon very trifles. And upon consideration I found myself
in a worse condition than I thought, for I had nothing to recommend me
to Heaven, either in works or thoughts; had even banished from my mind
all the cardinal and moral virtues, and had much more reason to hide
myself from the sight of God, if possible, than I had to leave The
Hague, that I might not be known of my fellow-creatures. And farther to
hasten our removing to Amsterdam, I recollected I was involved in debt
for money to purchase a share in the Newfoundland trader, which was
lost, and my creditors daily threatened me with an arrest to make me pay
them.
I soon discharged my lodgings and went with Isabel to Amsterdam, where I
thought, as I was advanced in years, to give up all I could raise in the
world, and on the sale of everything I had to go into one of the
Proveniers' houses, where I should be settled for life. But as I could
not produce enough money for it, I turned it into a coffee-house near
the Stadt-house, where I might have done well; but as soon as I was
settled one of my Hague creditors arrested me for a debt of £75, and I
not having a friend in the world of whom to raise the money, was, in a
shameful condition, carried to the common jail, where poor Isabel
followed me with showers of tears, and left me inconsolable for my great
misfortunes. Here, without some very unforeseen accident, I shall never
go out of it until I am carried to my grave, for which my much-offended
God prepare me as soon as possible.
_The continuation of the Life of Roxana, by Isabel Johnson, who had
been her waiting-maid, from the time she was thrown into jail to
the time of her death._
After my lady, as it was my duty to call her, was thrown into jail for a
debt she was unable to pay, she gave her mind wholly up to devotion.
Whether it was from a thorough sense of her wretched state, or any other
reason, I could never learn; but this I may say, that she was a sincere
penitent, and in every action had all the behaviour of a Christian. By
degrees all the things she had in the world were sold, and she began to
find an inward decay upon her spirits. In this interval she repeated all
the passages of her ill-spent life to me, and thoroughly repented of
every bad action, especially the little value she had for her children,
which were honestly born and bred. And having, as she believed, made her
peace with God, she died with mere grief on the 2nd of July 1742, in the
sixty-fifth year of her age, and was decently buried by me in the
churchyard belonging to the Lutherans, in the city of Amsterdam.
THE END.