Даниэль Дефо - Roxana

Amy . I can’t give you any farther Account, Sir; my Mistress would not let me stay with her any longer; she said, she could neither pay me, or subsist me; I told her, I wou’d serve her without any Wages, but I cou’d not live without Victuals, you know; so I was forc’d to leave her, poor Lady , sore against my Will, and I heard afterwards, that the Landlord seiz’d her Goods, so she was, I suppose, turn’d out of Doors; for as I went by the Door, about a Month after, I saw the House shut up; and about a Fortnight after that, I found there were Workmen at work, fitting it up, as I suppose, for a new Tennant; but none of the Neighbours could tell me what was become of my poor Mistress, only that they said, she was so poor, that it was next to begging; that some of the neighbouring Gentlefolks had reliev’d her, or that else she must have starv’d; then she went on, and told him, that after that, they never heard any more of [ me ] her Mistress; but that she had been seen once or twice in the City, very shabby, and poor in Cloaths, and it was thought she work’d with her Needle, for her Bread: All this, the Jade said with so much Cunning, and manag’d and humour’d it so well, and wip’d her Eyes, and cry’d so artificially, [120] artificially : artfully. that he took it all as it was intended he should, and once or twice she saw Tears in his Eyes too: He told her, it was a moving, melancholly Story, and it had almost broke his Heart at first; but that he was driven to the last Extremity, and cou’d do nothing, but stay and see ’em all starve, which he cou’d not bear the Thoughts of, but shou’d have Pistol’d himself, if any such thing had happen’d while he was there; that he left [ me ] his Wife, all the Money he had in the World, but 25 l . which was as little as he could take with him, to seek his Fortune in the World; he cou’d not doubt but that his Relations, seeing they were all Rich, wou’d have taken the poor Children off, and not let them come to the Parish; and that his Wife was young and handsome, and, he thought, might Marry again, perhaps; to her Advantage; and for that very Reason, he never wrote to her, or let her know he was alive, that she might, in a reasonable Term of Years, marry, and perhaps, mend her Fortunes: That he resolv’d never to claim her, because he should rejoice to hear, that she had settled to her Mind; and that he wish’d there had been a Law made, to empower a Woman to marry, if her Husband was not heard of in so long time; which time, he thought, shou’d not be above four Year, [121] shou’d not be above four Year : Protestant reformers considered desertion (variously, from four to ten years) equivalent to divorce and a sufficient condition for remarriage. In his Tetrachordon Milton argued the liberal Protestant case for dissolving marriage after a man was absent and not heard from for four years, but England was much slower than Protestant continental countries to permit legal divorce with the right of remarriage. which was long enough to send Word in, to a Wife or Family, from any Part of the World.

Amy said, she cou’d say nothing to that; but this, that she was satisfied, her Mistress would marry no-body, unless she had certain Intelligence that he had been dead, from somebody that saw him buried; but alas! says Amy , my Mistress was reduc’d to such dismal Circumstances, that no-body wou’d be so foolish to think of her, unless it had been somebody to go a-begging with her.

Amy then seeing him so perfectly deluded, made a long and lamentable Outcry, how she had been deluded away, to marry a poor Footman; for he is no worse, or better, says she , tho’ he calls himself a Lord’s Gentleman; and here, says Amy , he has dragg’d me over into a strange Country, to make a Begger of me; and then she falls a howling again, and sniveling; which, by the way, was all Hypocrisie, but acted so to the Life, as perfectly deceiv’d him, and he gave entire Credit to every Word of it.

Why, Amy, says he , you are very well dress’d, you don’t look as if you were in danger of being a Begger; Ay , hang him, says Amy , they love to have fine Cloaths here, if they have never a Sm—k under them; but I love to have Money in Cash, rather than a Chest full of fine Cloaths; besides, Sir, says she , most of the Cloaths I have, were given me in the last Place I had, when I went away from my Mistress.

Upon the whole of the Discourse, Amy got out of him, what Condition he was in, and how he liv’d, upon her Promise to him, that if ever she came to England , and should see her old Mistress, she should not let her know that he was alive: Alas! Sir, says Amy , I may never come to see England again, as long as I live; and if I shou’d, it wou’d be ten Thousand to One, whether I shall see my old Mistress; for how shou’d I know which Way to look for her? or what Part of England she may be in; not I, says she , I don’t so much as know how to enquire for her; and if I shou’d, says Amy , ever be so happy as to see her, I would not do her so much Mischief as to tell her where you were, Sir, unless she was in a Condition to help herself and you too: This farther deluded him, and made him entirely open in his conversing with her: As to his own Circumstances, he told her, she saw him in the highest Preferment he had arriv’d to, or was ever like to arrive to; for, having no Friends or Acquaintance in France , and which was worse, no Money , he never expected to rise; that he could have been made a Lieutenant to a Troop of Light-Horse but the Week before, by the Favour of an Officer in the Gensd’arms , who was his Friend; but that he must have found 8000 Livres to have paid for it, to the Gentleman who possess’d it; and had Leave given him to sell: But where cou’d I get 8000 Livres , says he that have never been Master 0f 500 Livres Ready-Money , at a-time, since I came into France?

O Dear! Sir, says Amy , I am very sorry to hear you say so; I fancy if you once got up to some Preferment, you wou’d think of my old Mistress again, and do something for her; poor Lady, says Amy , she wants it, to be sure, and then she falls a-crying again; ’tis a sad thing, indeed, says she , that you should be so hard put to it for Money, when you had got a Friend to recommend you, and shou’d lose it for want of Money; ay, so it was, Amy , indeed, says he ; but what can a Stranger do, that has neither Money or Friends? Here Amy puts in again on my Account; well, says she , my poor Mistress has had the Loss, tho’ she knows nothing of it; O dear! how happy it would have been, to be sure, Sir, you wou’d have help’d her all you cou’d; Ay , says he, Amy, so I wou’d, with all my Heart ; and even as I am, I wou’d send her some Relief, if I thought she wanted it; only, that then letting her know I was alive, might do her some Prejudice, in case of her settling, or marrying any-body .

Alas! says Amy , Marry! who will marry her, in the poor Condition she is in? And so their Discourse ended for that Time.

All this was meer Talk on both Sides, and Words of Course; for on farther Enquiry, Amy found, that he had no such Offer of a Lieutenant’s Commission, or any thing like it; and that he rambled in his Discourse, from one thing to another: But of that in its Place.

You may be sure, that this Discourse, as Amy at first related it, was moving, to the last Degree, upon me; and I was once going to have sent him the 8000 Livres, to purchase the Commission he had spoken of; but as I knew his Character better than any-body, I was willing to search a little farther into it; and so I set Amy to enquire of some other of the Troop, to see what Character he had, and whether there was any-thing in the Story of a Lieutenant’s Commission, or no.