_They are ship’d from_ Palermo _to_ Naples, _by the way Mistress_
Dorothy _continues the story of her Hostess who was hanged with her
Husband for a Murder, the like was never heard of, her notorious
confession at the Gallows of all her former Villanies_: Latroons
_reflections on it. Mistress_ Dorothy _and her Companion the Souldier,
return for_ London.
Our _Mulletteer_ was very well rewarded by our Entertainer, for the
prevention of so much mischief, which had undoubtedly befel the
Gentleman, had not this fellow gone down at that unseasonable time to
stuff his insatiate guts. And now taking our leaves (the Gentleman and
his friends being very unwilling and sorrowful to part with our
Companies) away we came shaping our course for _Palermo_, where being
arriv’d and finding out those Friends we had left too long, infinite was
our satisfaction of meeting thus together again, but I I thought my
_Jinny_ would have been transported with joy when she saw me, but
recovering her self, she check’d me severely for staying so long from
her beyond my promise. Our caresses were accompanied with what choice
Viands and Wine the City could produce.
Having now pleased our sight with the curiosities of this place, we
concluded upon a remove; and the next place pitcht on was _Naples_, and
to the intent we might convey our moneys with greater safety thither, we
took up Bills at _Palermo_ for 5000 pounds, drawn upon a Merchant of
_Naples_, payable ten days after sight. Having shipp’d our selves, with
all conveniences, that our Voyage might not seem tedious, I desired
Mistress _Dorothy_ to divert the Company with the continuation of her
Story. Ah Master _Latroon_! (said she) your Request renews my grief, by
putting me in mind of the loss of my dear Companion _Mall_, however I
shall endeavour to satisfie your desire, and having given a summary
account to the Captain and the rest, which had not heard anything of her
former relation, of what was before discovered, she commenc’d her
following discourse where she before left off, _viz._ her coming
acquainted with the Soldier, and then she thus proceeded.
Being rid of my great Belly, and having now gotten me a good round sum
of money, I took my pleasure with as much freedom as my unlimited
desires could prompt me to, I was frequently at the old womans the
Hostess, (_alias_ my Procuress) where I found conveniences for all my
secret, crafty, and pleasant Designs, and indeed to give her her due,
she was no Back-friend to me, this was the place which I made my general
Rendezvouz; here I did use to meet with my Friends, and here did I
converse with my Soldier of Fortune (as I have already told you) before
I make any further progress, give me leave to rehearse a Copy of Verses
(which I got by heart) of his own composition, which he made upon the
cunning trick he found in conjuring for food for his hungry Landlord and
his own half famisht worship, which were these:
_Hunger’s a Whetstone that so sharpens Wit,
It cuts away for some to feed by it.
For stomacks cramm’d with Lethargies do blind
The active wit, and hebetates the mind.
The Grammer-school when it hath spawn’d the Fry
Either to_ Oxford _or to_ Cambridge _hye:
Where lest they should by too much food grow dull,
They scarce in seven years have their belly full.
That Barresters at Bar may louder bawl,
See the short Commons that art in the Hall.
’Tis plenty rusts our Valour, when we need,
Rather than starve, we there can bravely bleed:
For food we fight, for which we Centry stand,
Want makes our wit as active as our hand.
Thus did my wit shew to my wants a way
To fill its belly, and increase my pay,
Hence I may say that I do live by wit,
For I’ve got money, and a Wench with it.
Grammercy Wit, help and assist me still,
He ne’re can want that hath but Wit at will._
This Souldier was a Gentleman of a good house, though fallen to decay,
whose education might have renderd him capable of considerable
employments, had not his Heroick inclination to the Wars taken his
thoughts clearly off from every thing else. I appointed a day for this
man of war, to attend me some few miles into the Countrey, having got
leave of his Captain we went together, in the mean time my Hostess was
spinning of Hemp, and by return had finisht a Rope for her self and
Husband: and thus it was.
A single Gentleman came as a Traveller to lodge in her Inn, having set
up his Horse, and his Portmantua carried to his Chamber, he knocks for
his Landlady, who coming up to him he acquaints her that he thought he
should make a stay for two or three days, and therefore delivers into
her hands a bag of one hundred pounds, desiring her to lay it up safe
for him, she took the Bag and promised to keep it safe, and so she did
from him: The Devil was one of her Privy Councel who advised her to
perswade her Husband to murder the Gentleman for his money, which thus
they cunningly effected as they thought, but he that did set them at
work will pay them their wages.
At midnight she and her Husband entred the Gentlemans Chamber through a
private door which was hid behind the hangings, a Sally-port for a
thousand Rogueries they committed; mine Host with a Pillow he had
brought with him, and the assistance of his wife, smothered the
Gentleman as he lay in his bed, having so done, and putting on his
Cloathes, they laid him down into the Stable, and there with a Rope ty’d
to a beam, they hung him up, and so went to Bed; In the morning the
Hostler going into the Stable found a Gentleman there hanging, upon
sight whereof he ran into the house with an Outcry, which quickly reacht
the ears of the Neighbourhood, so that in an instant the house was
filled with people, every one giving his Verdict as his imagination
prompted him; the general Vogue was that for some discontent he had thus
desperately made away with himself. This old Beldam had the impudence to
come into the Throng of the people, and there declare her Hypocritical
sorrow for the death of her Guest, protesting that she would have given
an hundred pounds with all her heart, that no such thing had hapned in
her house. I took notice, said the Host, of his extraordinary melancholy
last night, and reproving him for his unsociableness, he clapt his hand
upon his breast, and with erected eyes to heaven, he groaned so loud and
long that I thought it would have been his last. This prodigious lye
would have wrought wonderfully upon the belief of the People, being a
strong Circumstance of his despair or great discontent, had not this
unlucky boy which I told you of before, cryed out, true good people, I
heard him groan too, but it was when my Master and Mistress were hanging
him up in the Stable, what they had been doing with him before I know
not, but I saw them as I lay under the manger bring in his body, which
seem’d to me as dead, and had they seen me, I believe I had not been now
living; my Mistress had the chiefest hand in this work as I judge, for
she got up into the Rack, and stradling the beam tyed the Rope, then did
my Master raise the body in his Arms for her to put the noose about his
neck; this is a truth said he, for which I will rather dy then deny.
His Master hearing this, and being conscious to himself that this was no
ly which the boy said, betook himself to his heels, whilst his wife with
a brazen countenance was justifying her innocence. The people seeing the
flight of one, and the matchless impudence of the other, concluded them
guilty; and laying hands on her first, and hold of him after, they
secured them with the boy till the Constable was fetched, who came
immediately and carried them before a Justice, where being examined they
stood out stiffly in their own vindication, maugre the boys peremptory
and undaunted accusation; In fine their guilty consciences would not let
them longer persist in their justification, but confest the Fact that it
was an hundred pounds which was committed to their charge by the
Gentleman, that first tempted them to smother him, the Devil helping
them to way they thought undiscoverable. They were committed to a Goal,
where they lay till Assizes; at which time they were both sentenced to
dye.
Glad was I that it should come into my head to ramble into the Countrey
at that nick of time, for my extraordinary familiarity with them might
have raised a suspition to the endangering of my person, besides the boy
which accused them had a spight against me for causing him to be soundly
bang’d sometimes for some Roguish trick he served me; one he play’d a
little before this Murder was committed, and being basted for it, I
heard him say mutteringly, he would find a time to be even, judge you
whether he be not, however thus he was an unhappy Roguish boy, yet
Heaven judged him a fit Instrument to discover a deed so bloody and
horribly wicked.
Coming to the place of Execution, I could not see in my Hosts face any
considerable marks of remorse or penitency, only the fear of Death had
screwed his face into a hundred ugly affrighting formes: She for her
part ascended the Ladder after she had seen the death of her Husband,
with magnanimity and Courage; having been in Prison according to report,
the greatest Penitent that ever was known to go thence and suffer as a
Malefactor, I say she standing undauntedly on the Ladder, spake to the
People after this manner, which I here recount as carrying some very
remarkable things in it.
The Speech of a Notoriously-wicked Woman
at her Execution.
_Christian People, the greatness of my sins have cry’d loud to Heaven
for Vengeance a long time, but Mercy hath interceded for the
prolongation of my life, to give me a long and fair opportunity for
Repentance, but this long forbearance hath but hardned my heart, and
made it obdurate; so that my black and horrid Sins grew so numerous that
they awakened divine Justice (which hitherto seemed to sleep) to find me
out, and bring me to this shameful and condign punishment. As I am here
before you a sad spectacle of misery, so I hope you will beg of God
mercy for my poor sinful soul, which from my Cradle to this time hath
been polluted not with Crimes of a common Die, but such as were
conceived in the Womb of Hell, and Midwiv’d by me into this wicked
world. What Tragical unpattern’d Mischiefs they have acted on the
Theatre of my native Countrey, my tongue (that cursed Accessary in the
ruine of some Families) shall not conceal from you, since I cannot hide
them from the knowledge of God Allmighty._
_When I was so young I wanted power to perpetrate Villany, I had strong
inclinations to the acting thereof; I was no sooner wean’d, but I had
like to have killed that Mother who gave me life, by pricking her in the
naked breast with a Bodkin I took out of her Head-cloaths, she being
then half asleep, holding me in her Lap, when I arrived to the age of
fifteen, the boiling of my blood would not let me rest till I had
somewhat qualified its heat in the unlawful reception of a young man,
after which sinful act I found my self with Child, to prevent the shame
whereof I murdered it, thinking to hide one smaller sin by the greatness
of another; the death I am about to suffer should have been the reward
of that execrable murder; and I now wish it had been so, for then I had
not strangled in the very birth (to abscond my whoredom from my Husband)
a Child, the product of my insatiate lust with a_ Blackmoor, _who
afterwards lost his own life in the destructions of my Husbands; neither
had I been the cause of the death of two more, had I not been the basely
obscene Prostitute to them both._
_But one more remarkable murder then any yet I have related, I must not
conceal, the burden whereof lies like a mountain on my already
over-loaded Conscience. Passing one time for a maid, though then a
common debauched whore, this Inn-keeper, (my fellow-sufferer, and justly
so, since he was my Co-partner and Complotter in a thousand Roguish
Contrivances) courted me to be his Wife: being informed of his wealth I
easily condescended, not regarding his goodness so much as his Goods,
and lest he might find what I was on our Nuptial Night; I caused a pure,
but poor Virgin whom I hired to lye in my place for that time, but
over-sleeping her prefixt time I had appointed for my exchanging places
with her, I was forc’d to fire the house, in which confusion she running
down to a Well in the yard to get water, I pursued her, and partly to be
revenged, and partly to be secured from her future discovery, I tumbled
her into the Well, and there she perished: As to the last murther of
this Gentlemen, I must needs confess my Husband, though superlatively
wicked, had no inclination thereunto, had I not perswaded him; nay,
upbraided him with pusillanimity and cowardize if he would not be my
Coadjutor and Assistant therein. Now do I wish from the bottom of my
disconsolate Soul, I had as many lives as deaths I have occasioned, to
offer up as a Sacrifice which might expiate so many crying sins of
murder, as I have committed in my life time, this one is too small a
satisfaction for the loss of so many. And had I not forfeited it to the
Law, yet I ought not to live, considering the debauched course of life I
ever liv’d, being no more than a rank stinking weed, which hindred, nay
choak’d the growth of wholesom herbs and flowers, which otherwise might
have proved delightful in their fragrancy._
_And now to conclude, if you intend to escape this shameful punishment,
and not to be made an example to others, as I am now to you, shun all
these Vices and Debaucheries which have dragged me to this accursed end,
and do not promise to your selves a better conclusion, if from the
beginning thereof you continue the prosecution of vicious and debauched
Courses; I was as confident as any he or she here, that hanging was too
ignominious a death for such a piece of Gallantry as I was, but assure
your self Heaven has no respect of persons; the Sword of Justice spares
no more the shining Gallant and huffing_ Bravo, _than the meanest smutty
Tinker; And so desiring the Prayers of the Spectators for her, having
rendred her private Applications for her eternal concern, she gave the
sign to the Hangman, and she was so turned off._
* * * * *
This speech of the dying person Mistress _Dorothy_ rehearsed to me, with
so much passion, giving each word so becoming an accent, that I must
confess to you it wrought wonderfully on me, nay it so startled me, that
I now began to consider what would become of me since laying aside
murder, (having never imbrewed my hands in blood) I was more notorious
in all manner of Vice than the narrowness of a female Soul could be
capable of imagining much less of acting, why should I then humor myself
into a fancy of escaping, since I have seen so many dismal Examples of
this nature, some whereof I have told you, and more I shall of my
intimates in the prosecution of my Story, who notwithstanding they have
craftily endeavoured to conceal their nefarious actions and projections,
yet have been found out by the omnipotent, nay then when they thought
him to sleep over their hainous transgressions, which puts me in mind of
an excellent passage of _Juvenal_, though he be a Heathen, in his Satyr
13.
——————— _Fatebere tandem
Nec surdum, nec tiresiam, quenquam esse Deorum._
_Let us confess, since we at last shall finde,
None of the Gods are either deaf, or blind._
Craving pardon of Mistress _Dorothy_, I desired her to proceed, which
she did in this manner: Having staid the Execution of my old friend
(which was no small trouble to me,) but durst not be present lest she
should discover my Rogueries too, since she was so ingenious to
acknowledge her own to the world; I say, I staid no longer than to get
what things I had ready, and desiring the Soldier to attend me to
_London_, he had so much favor from his Office, as to get a furlow for
eight weeks, and so away we march’d: Immediately after our arrival, I
took Lodgings in _Covent-Garden_, and having cloath’d him like a
Gentleman as he was, we agreed to call each other Cousin, lodging under
one and the same Roof. His company was very agreeable and complaisant,
which made me take a great delight in his society. He had a good command
of his Mother-tongue, expressing every thing eloquently and facetely,
which his invention furnished his mouth withal; when at any time we were
alone, he would be continually telling me one Story or other, but
chiefly a great many beyond Sea Cheats, some whereof he was an
eye-witness, but because they all concerned his own Sex, I desired that
he would give himself the trouble to recount something of ours;
undoubtedly, said I, you were acquainted with the females abroad as well
as at home, and I cannot be so ignorant to believe you have not
conversed with them. Yes, replyed he, or else I had been to blame, and
should have lost one of the principal ends I went for, If I had not been
acquainted as well with the _Madam_, as the _Monsieur_; but, continued
he, I do not think it proper to recount any of the frailties of women to
one of that Sex, that discourse is more proper with men when we triumph
and boast of our witty encounters, and waggish over-reachings of that
Sex. But, replyed I to him, as you have done all this, and spent some
time in the recitals, so I pray let me further engage you to acquaint me
with somewhat of that nature. That you may see, replyed he, how much I
am your Servant, I will obey you, and tell you two Stories of two women,
who were excellent, and their Stories considerable different.