The disaster of this woman was some months before that of the
last-recited story, and was indeed partly occasion of my governess
proposing to dress me up in men's clothes, that I might go about
unobserved, as indeed I did; but I was soon tired of that disguise, as
I have said, for indeed it exposed me to too many difficulties.
I was now easy as to all fear of witnesses against me, for all those
that had either been concerned with me, or that knew me by the name of
Moll Flanders, were either hanged or transported; and if I should have
had the misfortune to be taken, I might call myself anything else, as
well as Moll Flanders, and no old sins could be placed into my account;
so I began to run a-tick again with the more freedom, and several
successful adventures I made, though not such as I had made before.
We had at that time another fire happened not a great way off from the
place where my governess lived, and I made an attempt there, as before,
but as I was not soon enough before the crowd of people came in, and
could not get to the house I aimed at, instead of a prize, I got a
mischief, which had almost put a period to my life and all my wicked
doings together; for the fire being very furious, and the people in a
great fright in removing their goods, and throwing them out of window,
a wench from out of a window threw a feather-bed just upon me. It is
true, the bed being soft, it broke no bones; but as the weight was
great, and made greater by the fall, it beat me down, and laid me dead
for a while. Nor did the people concern themselves much to deliver me
from it, or to recover me at all; but I lay like one dead and neglected
a good while, till somebody going to remove the bed out of the way,
helped me up. It was indeed a wonder the people in the house had not
thrown other goods out after it, and which might have fallen upon it,
and then I had been inevitably killed; but I was reserved for further
afflictions.
This accident, however, spoiled my market for that time, and I came
home to my governess very much hurt and bruised, and frighted to the
last degree, and it was a good while before she could set me upon my
feet again.
It was now a merry time of the year, and Bartholomew Fair was begun. I
had never made any walks that way, nor was the common part of the fair
of much advantage to me; but I took a turn this year into the
cloisters, and among the rest I fell into one of the raffling shops.
It was a thing of no great consequence to me, nor did I expect to make
much of it; but there came a gentleman extremely well dressed and very
rich, and as 'tis frequent to talk to everybody in those shops, he
singled me out, and was very particular with me. First he told me he
would put in for me to raffle, and did so; and some small matter coming
to his lot, he presented it to me (I think it was a feather muff); then
he continued to keep talking to me with a more than common appearance
of respect, but still very civil, and much like a gentleman.