Page:History of the blind beggar of Bethnal Green (2).pdf/13

13 of great worth beat off those little assailants, and laid close siege, as will appear in the next chapter.

CHAP: VII.

Pretty Bessy, living at an inn in Rumford is courted by several persons of good birth and fortune.

IT being secretly whispered that pretty Bessy must be more than she seemed, made her reputation higher, insomuch, that the innkeeper's son, a London merchant, a gentleman of good estate, and a rich knight, all courted her favour; to whose importunities she urged the meanness of her birth, and inequality of her fortune, desiring them to desist from their undertakings. This modest objection of her's excited further imaginations of the worth of her parentage, and added more fuel to the fire-So easy are men to believe the things they would have. Insomuch that they began to renew their addresses by offering her jewels, rings, &c. which she refused, on account of her character, and therefore, she resolved to discover her parents, and that way to try the