Page:Fortunes and misfortunes of the famous Moll Flanders.pdf/18

   18     The Fortunes and Misfortunes

excuſe for not comming ſooner, he told me his time had been employed on   my account, and in ſhort, he had got my ſentence changed for tranſporta- tion; at hearing of which, I was ſo overſet with joy that I ſwooned away, and it was with ſome difficulty that I   came to myſelf again. I having now liberty to go through among the reſt of the priſoners, and who ſhould I diſcover, but my Lan- caſhire huſband? Upon the firſt diſ- covery we were both thunder ſtruct, the one being quite ignorant of the other's adventures. After we had recovered our ſurpriſe a little, I gave my hiſtory, and he in   his turn, gave his, which indeed was a very ſtrange one; by which I un- derſtood he had taken to the high- way about 12 years before he mar- ried me, and that he had now car- ried on that deſperate trade about 25 years, with tolerable ſucceſs, and had never been taken up before, and even now, the evidence was but very ſlen- der, and he believed, if he petitioned for tranſportation before his trial came on, he could obtain it; which accordingly