ame acquainted with Mrs. Amy a second time (I
knew her before as Roxana's woman), who told me one day some things
relating to my mother, and from thence I concluded if she was not my
mother herself (as I at first thought she was), she must be employed by
her; for no stranger could profess so much friendship, where there was
no likelihood of any return, after being so many years asunder.

"After this, I made it my business to find your lady out if possible,
and was twice in her company, once on board the ship you were to have
come to Holland in, and once at the Quaker's house in the Minories,
London; but as I gave her broad hints of whom I took her for, and my
lady did not think proper to own me, I began to think I was mistaken,
till your voyage to Holland was put off. Soon after, I was flung into
Whitechapel jail for a false debt, but, through the recommendation of
the jailer's wife to the annual charity of the good Lady Roberts, of
Mile End, I was discharged. Whereupon I posted away, seeking my mother
all down the Kent Road as far as Dover and Deal, at which last place not
finding her, I came in a coaster to London, and landing in Southwark,
was immediately arrested, and confined in the Marshalsea prison, where I
remained some time, deprived of every means to let any person without
the prison know my deplorable state and condition, till my chum, a young
woman, my bedfellow, who was also confined for debt, was, by a
gentleman, discharged. This young woman of her own free will, went, my
lord, to your lodgings in the Minories, and acquainted your landlady,
the Quaker, where I was, and for what sum I was confined, who
immediately sent and paid the pretended debt, and so I was a second time
discharged. Upon which, going to the Quaker's to return her my thanks
soon after a letter from your lady to her, with a direction in it where
to find you, falling into my hands, I set out the next morning for the
Hague; and I humbly hope your pardon, my lord, for the liberty I have
taken; and you may be assured, that whatever circumstances of life I
happen to be in, I will be no disgrace to your lordship or family."

"Well," said my husband, "what can you say of your mother's second
child, who, I hear, was a son?"

"My lord," said I, "it is in my power to tell you, that Thomas there is
the son you mention; their circumstances are the same, with this
difference, that she was brought up under the care of a good aunt, and
the boy forced t