ticulars to me, he would never have been so foolish
as to have mentioned that part to him.

But the malice of his thoughts anticipated him, and the Dutch merchant
was so good as to give me an account of his design, which, indeed, was
wicked enough in its nature; but to me it would have been worse than
otherwise it would to another, for, upon examination, I could not have
proved myself to be the wife of the jeweller, so the suspicion might
have been carried on with the better face; and then I should also have
brought all his relations in England upon me, who, finding by the
proceedings that I was not his wife, but a mistress, or, in English, a
whore, would immediately have laid claim to the jewels, as I had owned
them to be his.

This thought immediately rushed into my head as soon as the Dutch
merchant had told me what wicked things were in the head of that cursed
Jew; and the villain (for so I must call him) convinced the Dutch
merchant that he was in earnest by an expression which showed the rest
of his design, and that was, a plot to get the rest of the jewels into
his hand.

When first he hinted to the Dutchman that the jewels were such a man's
(meaning my husband's), he made wonderful exclamations on account of
their having been concealed so long. Where must they have lain? And what
was the woman that brought them? And that she (meaning me) ought to be
immediately apprehended and put into the hands of justice. And this was
the time that, as I said, he made such horrid gestures and looked at me
so like a devil.

The merchant, hearing him talk at that rate, and seeing him in earnest,
said to him, "Hold your tongue a little; this is a thing of consequence.
If it be so, let you and I go into the next room and consider of it
there;" and so they withdrew, and left me.

Here, as before, I was uneasy, and called him out, and, having heard how
it was, gave him that answer, that I was his wife, or widow, which the
malicious Jew said should not serve my turn. And then it was that the
Dutchman called him out again; and in this time of his withdrawing, the
merchant, finding, as above, that he was really in earnest,
counterfeited a little to be of his mind, and entered into proposals
with him for the thing itself.

In this they agreed to go to an advocate, or counsel, for directions how
to proceed, and to meet again the next day, against which time the
merchant was to appoint me to come again with the jewels, in order to