ch
the women were all taken up, and committed to the house of correction;
but the young ones are now at liberty, and keep about the town." "Pray,"
said I, "what may have become of the old beast that could be the ruin of
those young creatures?" "Why, I do not well know," says she; "but I have
heard that, as all her goods were seized upon, she was sent to the
poorhouse; but it soon after appearing that she had the French disease
to a violent degree, was removed to a hospital to be taken care of, but
I believe she will never live to come out; and if she should be so
fortunate, the gentleman that was robbed, finding that she was the
guilty person, intends to prosecute her to the utmost rigour of the
law."

I was sadly surprised to hear this character of Amy; for I thought
whatever house she might keep, that the heyday of her blood had been
over. But I found that she had not been willing to be taken for an old
woman, though near sixty years of age; and my not seeing or hearing from
her for some time past was a confirmation of what had been told me.

I went home sadly dejected, considering how I might hear of her. I had
known her for a faithful servant to me, in all my bad and good fortune,
and was sorry that at the last such a miserable end should overtake her,
though she, as well as I, deserved it several years before.

A few days after I went pretty near the place I had heard she was, and
hired a poor woman to go and inquire how Amy ---- did, and whether she
was likely to do well. The woman returned, and told me that the matron,
or mistress, said, the person I inquired after died in a salivation two
days before, and was buried the last night in the cemetery belonging to
the hospital.

I was very sorry to hear of Amy's unhappy and miserable death; for when
she came first into my service she was really a sober girl, very witty
and brisk, but never impudent, and her notions in general were good,
till my forcing her, as it were, to have an intrigue with the jeweller.
She had also lived with me between thirty and forty years, in the
several stages of life as I had passed through; and as I had done
nothing but what she was privy to, so she was the best person in the
universal world to consult with and take advice from, as my
circumstances now were.

I returned to my lodgings much chagrined, and very disconsolate; for as
I had for several years lived at the pinnacle of splendour and
satisfaction, it was a prodigious heart-b