Page:Singular life, adventures, and depredations of David Haggart, the murderer.pdf/22

22 spent profusely on them. Constancy was not my motto; like the grand Seignior, I threw my handkerchief first to one, and then to another, as fancy prompted; and my character for generosity urged them to meet me more than half way-A good disposed woman may work miracles with a man who loves her; but, alas for me! I only loved the reverse of all that is virtuous, and those who for money would chat and advise me in iniquity. On the other hand, my male companions learned me to be expert in sin; I grew in to such state, that I dared not to think or reflect, night or day; I looked backward upon folly, and forward with dread; I was ashamed to look my parents and relations in the face, and and I fatally quitted my home. Oh! my poor mother, how bitterly she took on! but I was lost to all feeling—the devil had the upper hand of me.

“My most dangerous associate was a young man named Barnard M’Guire, an Irishman, who went amongst us by the slang appellation of the Darling of a Boy; though of the sister kingdom, he was apprenticed to a tailor at Dumfries; but preferred the profession of a pick-pocket: he was tall, athletic, and courageous, and became my instructor in the science; in short, he was clever at every thing, and always gave me fair play as to my share; but we sometimes played the double on our