in this track, when my career was all of a sudden stopped by a five-bar
gate, which, after some hesitation, I resolved to leap (my horse being
an old hunter), if I should find myself pursued. However, with much
difficulty I made a shift to open it, and arrived in safety at the house
of my very good friend Mr. G--, who, being a justice of the peace, had
promised me his protection, if it should be wanted.

"Thus secured for the present, I sent out spies to bring information of
his lordship's proceedings, and understood that he had taken possession
of my house, turned my servants adrift, and made himself master of all
my movables, clothes, and papers. As for the papers, they were of no
consequence, but of clothes I had a good stock; and, when I had reason
to believe that he did not intend to relinquish his conquest, I thought
it was high time for me to remove to a greater distance from his
quarters. Accordingly, two days after my escape, I set out at eleven
o'clock at night, in a chariot and four, which I borrowed of my friend,
attended by a footman, who was a stout fellow, and well armed, I
myself being provided with a brace of good pistols, which I was fully
determined to use against any person who should presume to lay violent
hands upon me, except my lord, for whom a less mortal weapon would have
sufficed, such as a bodkin or a tinder-box. Nothing could be farther
from my intention than the desire of hurting any living creature, much
less my husband: my design was only to defend myself from cruelty and
oppression, which I knew, by fatal experience, would infallibly be my
lot, should he get me into his power. And I thought I had as good a
right to preserve my happiness, as that which every individual has
to preserve his life, especially against a set of ruffians, who were
engaged to rob me of it for a little dirty lucre.

"In the midst of our journey, the footman came up, and told me I was
dogged; upon which I looked out, and, seeing a man riding by the chariot
side, presented one of my pistols out of my window, and preserved that
posture of defence, until he thought proper to retreat, and rid me of
the fears that attended his company. I arrived in town, and, changing
my equipage, hired an open chaise, in which, though I was almost starved
with cold, I travelled to Reading, which I reached by ten next morning;
and from thence proceeded farther in the country, with a view of taking
refuge with Mrs. C--, who was my partic