It is not to be wondered that we prisoners were all desirous enough to
see these brave, topping gentlemen, that were talked up to be such as
their fellows had not been known, and especially because it was said
they would in the morning be removed into the press-yard, having given
money to the head master of the prison, to be allowed the liberty of
that better part of the prison. So we that were women placed ourselves
in the way, that we would be sure to see them; but nothing could
express the amazement and surprise I was in, when the very first man
that came out I knew to be my Lancashire husband, the same who lived so
well at Dunstable, and the same who I afterwards saw at Brickhill, when
I was married to my last husband, as has been related.
I was struck dumb at the sight, and knew neither what to say nor what
to do; he did not know me, and that was all the present relief I had.
I quitted my company, and retired as much as that dreadful place
suffers anybody to retire, and I cried vehemently for a great while.
'Dreadful creature that I am,' said I, 'how may poor people have I made
miserable? How many desperate wretches have I sent to the devil?' He
had told me at Chester he was ruined by that match, and that his
fortunes were made desperate on my account; for that thinking I had
been a fortune, he was run into debt more than he was able to pay, and
that he knew not what course to take; that he would go into the army
and carry a musket, or buy a horse and take a tour, as he called it;
and though I never told him that I was a fortune, and so did not
actually deceive him myself, yet I did encourage the having it thought
that I was so, and by that means I was the occasion originally of his
mischief.
The surprise of the thing only struck deeper into my thoughts, any gave
me stronger reflections than all that had befallen me before. I
grieved day and night for him, and the more for that they told me he
was the captain of the gang, and that he had committed so many
robberies, that Hind, or Whitney, or the Golden Farmer were fools to
him; that he would surely be hanged if there were no more men left in
the country he was born in; and that there would abundance of people
come in against him.