d me to know. I remained with her in the
cottage upwards of a week; several of those who had been there coming and
going. The woman, after making me take an oath to be faithful, told me
that the people whom I had seen were a gang who got their livelihood by
passing forged notes, and that my father was a principal man amongst
them, adding, that I must do my best to assist them. I was a poor
ignorant child at that time, and I made no objection, thinking that
whatever my father did must be right; the woman then gave me some
instructions in the smasher's dialect of the Latin language. I made
great progress, because, for the first time in my life, I paid great
attention to my lessons. At last my father returned, and, after some
conversation with the woman, took me away in his cart. I shall be very
short about what happened to my father and myself during two years. My
father did his best to smash the Bank of England by passing forged notes,
and I did my best to assist him. We attended races and fairs in all
kinds of disguises; my father was a first-rate hand at a disguise, and
could appear of all ages, from twenty to fourscore; he was, however,
grabbed at last. He had said, as I have told you, that he should be my
ruin, but I was the cause of his, and all owing to the misfortune of this
here eye of mine. We came to this very place of Horncastle, where my
father purchased two horses of a young man, paying for them with three
forged notes, purporting to be Bank of Englanders, of fifty pounds each,
and got the young man to change another of the like amount; he at that
time appeared as a respectable dealer, and I as his son, as I really was.

"As soon as we had got the horses, we conveyed them to one of the places
of call belonging to our gang, of which there were several. There they
were delivered into the hands of one of our companions, who speedily sold
them in a distant part of the country. The sum which they fetched--for
the gang kept very regular accounts--formed an important item on the next
day of sharing, of which there were twelve in the year. The young man
whom my father had paid for the horses with his smashing notes, was soon
in trouble about them, and ran some risk, as I have heard, of being
executed; but he bore a good character, told a plain story, and, above
all, had friends, and was admitted to bail; to one of his friends he
described my father and myself. This person happened to be at an inn in
Yor