you a short sketch of my history, which will be published after my
death, in forty-seven volumes of my own compiling.

"I was born about forty miles from this place, of parents who, having
a very old family name to support, bestowed their whole fortune on my
elder brother; so that I inherited of my father little else than a large
share of choler, to which I am indebted for a great many adventures that
did not always end to my satisfaction. At the age of eighteen I was sent
up to town, with a recommendation to a certain peer, who found means
to amuse me with the promise of a commission for seven whole years; and
'tis odds but I should have made my fortune by my perseverance, had not
I been arrested, and thrown into the Marshalsea by my landlord, on whose
credit I had subsisted three years, after my father had renounced me as
an idle vagabond. There I remained six months, among those prisoners
who have no other support than chance charity; and contracted a very
valuable acquaintance, which was of great service to me in the future
emergencies of my life.

"I was no sooner discharged, in consequence of an act of parliament
for the relief of insolvent debtors, than I went to the house of my
creditor, whom I cudgelled without mercy; and, that I might leave
nothing undone of those things which I ought to have done, my next stage
was to Westminster Hall, where I waited until my patron came forth from
the house, and saluted him with a blow that laid him senseless on the
pavement. But my retreat was not so fortunate as I could have wished.
The chairman and lacqueys in waiting having surrounded and disarmed me
in a trice, I was committed to Newgate, and loaded with chains; and
a very sagacious gentleman, who was afterwards hanged, having sat in
judgment upon my case, pronounced me guilty of a capital crime, and
foretold my condemnation at the Old Bailey. His prognostic, however, was
disappointed; for nobody appearing to prosecute me at the next session,
I was discharged by order of the court. It would be impossible for me
to recount, in the compass of one day's conversation, all the particular
exploits of which I bore considerable share. Suffice it to say, I have
been, at different times, prisoner in all the jails within the bills of
mortality. I have broken from every round-house on this side Temple-bar.
No bailiff, in the days of my youth and desperation, durst execute a
writ upon me without a dozen of followers; and the justic