e than I had at the coining trade. I offered to go
along with two men and a woman, that made it their business to get into
houses by stratagem, and with them I was willing enough to venture.
But there were three of them already, and they did not care to part,
nor I to have too many in a gang, so I did not close with them, but
declined them, and they paid dear for their next attempt.

But at length I met with a woman that had often told me what adventures
she had made, and with success, at the waterside, and I closed with
her, and we drove on our business pretty well. One day we came among
some Dutch people at St. Catherine's, where we went on pretence to buy
goods that were privately got on shore. I was two or three times in a
house where we saw a good quantity of prohibited goods, and my
companion once brought away three pieces of Dutch black silk that
turned to good account, and I had my share of it; but in all the
journeys I made by myself, I could not get an opportunity to do
anything, so I laid it aside, for I had been so often, that they began
to suspect something, and were so shy, that I saw nothing was to be
done.

This baulked me a little, and I resolved to push at something or other,
for I was not used to come back so often without purchase; so the next
day I dressed myself up fine, and took a walk to the other end of the
town. I passed through the Exchange in the Strand, but had no notion
of finding anything to do there, when on a sudden I saw a great
cluttering in the place, and all the people, shopkeepers as well as
others, standing up and staring; and what should it be but some great
duchess come into the Exchange, and they said the queen was coming. I
set myself close up to a shop-side with my back to the counter, as if
to let the crowd pass by, when keeping my eye upon a parcel of lace
which the shopkeeper was showing to some ladies that stood by me, the
shopkeeper and her maid were so taken up with looking to see who was
coming, and what shop they would go to, that I found means to slip a
paper of lace into my pocket and come clear off with it; so the
lady-milliner paid dear enough for her gaping after the queen.

I went off from the shop, as if driven along by the throng, and
mingling myself with the crowd, went out at the other door of the
Exchange, and so got away before they missed their lace; and because I
would not be followed, I called a coach and shut myself up in it. I
had scarce shut