Immediately he calls for his best wig, hat, and sword, and ordering his
man to go to the other place to make his excuse-- that was to say, he
made an excuse to send his man away--he prepares to go into the coach.
As he was going, he stopped a while, and speaks mighty earnestly to me
about his business, and finds an opportunity to say very softly to me,
'Come away, my dear, as soon as ever you can.' I said nothing, but
made a curtsy, as if I had done so to what he said in public. In about
a quarter of an hour I went out too; I had no dress other than before,
except that I had a hood, a mask, a fan, and a pair of gloves in my
pocket; so that there was not the least suspicion in the house. He
waited for me in the coach in a back-lane, which he knew I must pass
by, and had directed the coachman whither to go, which was to a certain
place, called Mile End, where lived a confidant of his, where we went
in, and where was all the convenience in the world to be as wicked as
we pleased.
When we were together he began to talk very gravely to me, and to tell
me he did not bring me there to betray me; that his passion for me
would not suffer him to abuse me; that he resolved to marry me as soon
as he came to his estate; that in the meantime, if I would grant his
request, he would maintain me very honourably; and made me a thousand
protestations of his sincerity and of his affection to me; and that he
would never abandon me, and as I may say, made a thousand more
preambles than he need to have done.
However, as he pressed me to speak, I told him I had no reason to
question the sincerity of his love to me after so many protestations,
but--and there I stopped, as if I left him to guess the rest. 'But
what, my dear?' says he. 'I guess what you mean: what if you should
be with child? Is not that it? Why, then,' says he, 'I'll take care
of you and provide for you, and the child too; and that you may see I
am not in jest,' says he, 'here's an earnest for you,' and with that he
pulls out a silk purse, with an hundred guineas in it, and gave it me.
'And I'll give you such another,' says he, 'every year till I marry
you.' My colour came and went, at the sight of the purse and with the fire of
his proposal together, so that I could not say a word, and he easily
perceived it; so putting the purse into my bosom, I made no more
resistance to him, but let him do just what he pleased, and as often as
he pleased; and thus I finished my own destruction at once, for from
this day, being forsaken of my virtue and my modesty, I had nothing of
value left to recommend me, either to God's blessing or man's
assistance.