here his ever-soaring genius took a new Flight. Those
half surreptitious and wholly scandalous Nuptials known as Fleet
Marriages, were then very rife, and the adventurer had wit enough to
discover that it was to his interest to resume his cassock and bands,
and to become the Reverend Mr. Hodge once more. Not much was wanted to
set him up in business. Canonicals were to be had cheap enough in Rag
Fair for the sending for 'em; a greasy Common Prayer Book and a
chandler's-shop ledger to serve as a Register, did not cost much; so
with these, and an inimitably Brazen face, behold our worthy equipped as
a perfect Fleet Parson. He had to maintain at first a ragged regiment of
cads and Runners to tout for him and bring him customers, but he soon
became notorious, and formed a very fine connexion. Judgements by the
score had been obtained, and Detainers lodged against him at the gate,
since his incarceration at the suit of his acquaintance, the Tailor; but
'twas not long ere he contrived, by the easy process of joining people's
hands, to gain enough to pay all the claims against him, and by
permission of the Warden of the Fleet, to set up a Chapel and Liquor
Shop within the rules of the prison. Punch, Geneva, poisonous wine,
brandy, bitters, Rum, and Tobacco, were sold below stairs, and the Order
for the Solemnization of Matrimony was performed on the first floor. It
became quite a fashionable thing to go and be married by Parson Hodge,
and at last it would be said of him, that if he extorted money from you
beforehand, he did not pick your pocket afterwards, as too many of the
Fleet Parsons in those shameful days were in the habit of doing. He
continued at this merry game for many years, being in his way quite as
popular as Orator Henley, and coining a great deal more money than that
crack-brained Fanatic--for I have always been at pains to discover
whether Henley was more Rogue or Fool--till at last his lucrative but
unholy trade was put an end to by an Act of Parliament, called for by
the righteous indignation of all peaceable and loyal subjects of the
King, who did not desire to be married in haste and to repent at
leisure. I believe that Parson Hodge retired with a comfortable fortune,
and, going down into Somersetshire, purchased a small estate there, and
died, much respected, in the odour of many pigs, and in the Commission
of the Peace.

As for poor little Bartholomew Pinchin, his career was not nearly so
prosperous, nor