do with strangers of any kind, for
'tis very seldom that some snare or other is not in their way. The
moral, indeed, of all my history is left to be gathered by the senses
and judgment of the reader; I am not qualified to preach to them. Let
the experience of one creature completely wicked, and completely
miserable, be a storehouse of useful warning to those that read.

I am drawing now towards a new variety of the scenes of life. Upon my
return, being hardened by along race of crime, and success
unparalleled, at least in the reach of my own knowledge, I had, as I
have said, no thoughts of laying down a trade which, if I was to judge
by the example of other, must, however, end at last in misery and
sorrow.

It was on the Christmas day following, in the evening, that, to finish
a long train of wickedness, I went abroad to see what might offer in my
way; when going by a working silversmith's in Foster Lane, I saw a
tempting bait indeed, and not be resisted by one of my occupation, for
the shop had nobody in it, as I could see, and a great deal of loose
plate lay in the window, and at the seat of the man, who usually, as I
suppose, worked at one side of the shop.

I went boldly in, and was just going to lay my hand upon a piece of
plate, and might have done it, and carried it clear off, for any care
that the men who belonged to the shop had taken of it; but an officious
fellow in a house, not a shop, on the other side of the way, seeing me
go in, and observing that there was nobody in the shop, comes running
over the street, and into the shop, and without asking me what I was,
or who, seizes upon me, an cries out for the people of the house.

I had not, as I said above, touched anything in the shop, and seeing a
glimpse of somebody running over to the shop, I had so much presence of
mind as to knock very hard with my foot on the floor of the house, and
was just calling out too, when the fellow laid hands on me.

However, as I had always most courage when I was in most danger, so
when the fellow laid hands on me, I stood very high upon it, that I
came in to buy half a dozen of silver spoons; and to my good fortune,
it was a silversmith's that sold plate, as well as worked plate for
other shops. The fellow laughed at that part, and put such a value
upon the service that he had done his neighbour, that he would have it
be that I came not to buy, but to steal; and raising a great crowd. I
said to the master of the