with me upon that
account; so I would not let her lie in that house the first night by
any means, but had my eyes about me as narrowly as if she had been a
public thief.

My gentlewoman guessed presently what was the matter, and sent her back
with a short note, that I might depend upon the honesty of her maid;
that she would be answerable for her upon all accounts; and that she
took no servants into her house without very good security for their
fidelity. I was then perfectly easy; and indeed the maid's behaviour
spoke for itself, for a modester, quieter, soberer girl never came into
anybody's family, and I found her so afterwards.

As soon as I was well enough to go abroad, I went with the maid to see
the house, and to see the apartment I was to have; and everything was
so handsome and so clean and well, that, in short, I had nothing to
say, but was wonderfully pleased and satisfied with what I had met
with, which, considering the melancholy circumstances I was in, was far
beyond what I looked for.

It might be expected that I should give some account of the nature of
the wicked practices of this woman, in whose hands I was now fallen;
but it would be too much encouragement to the vice, to let the world
see what easy measures were here taken to rid the women's unwelcome
burthen of a child clandestinely gotten. This grave matron had several
sorts of practice, and this was one particular, that if a child was
born, though not in her house (for she had occasion to be called to
many private labours), she had people at hand, who for a piece of money
would take the child off their hands, and off from the hands of the
parish too; and those children, as she said, were honestly provided for
and taken care of. What should become of them all, considering so
many, as by her account she was concerned with, I cannot conceive.

I had many times discourses upon that subject with her; but she was
full of this argument, that she save the life of many an innocent lamb,
as she called them, which would otherwise perhaps have been murdered;
and of many women who, made desperate by the misfortune, would
otherwise be tempted to destroy their children, and bring themselves to
the gallows. I granted her that this was true, and a very commendable
thing, provided the poor children fell into good hands afterwards, and
were not abused, starved, and neglected by the nurses that bred them
up. She answered, that she always took care of that, a