The History and Remarkable Life of the Truly Honourable Colonel Jacque, Commonly Called Colonel JackDefoe, Daniel
General
The History and Remarkable Life of the Truly Honourable Colonel Jacque, Commonly Called Colonel Jack
Defoe, Daniel
Adventure stories, English; England -- Social life and customs -- 18th century -- Fiction; Picaresque fiction
I laid no stress upon the thing called a dream, neither till now did I
understand that dreams were of any importance; but getting up the next
day, and going out with a resolution to meet brother Will, who should I
meet but my former brother, Captain Jacque. When he saw me, he came
close to me in his blunt way, and says, “Do you hear the news?” “No,
not I,” said I; “what news?” “Your old comrade and teacher is taken
this morning and carried to Newgate.” “How,” says I, “this morning?”
“Yes,” says he, “this morning at four o’clock. He is charged with a
robbery and murder somewhere beyond Brentford; and that which is worse
is, that he is impeached by one of the gang, who, to save his own life,
has turned evidence; and therefore you had best consider,” says the
captain, “what you have to do.” “What I have to do!” says I; “and what
do you mean by that?” “Nay, colonel,” says he, “don’t be angry; you
know best. If you are not in danger, I am glad of it, but I doubt not
but you were with them.” “No, not I,” said I again; “I assure you I was
not.” “Well,” says he, “but if you were not with them this bout, you
have been with them at other times; and ’twill be all one.” “Not I,”
says I; “you are quite mistaken. I am none of their gang; they are
above my quality.” With such, and a little more talk of that kind, we
parted, and Captain Jacque went away; but as he went I observed he
shook his head, seemed to have more concern upon him than he could be
supposed to have merely on my account, of which we shall hear more very
quickly.
I was extremely alarmed when I heard Will was in Newgate, and, had I
known where to have gone, would certainly have fled as far as legs
would have carried me. My very joints trembled, and I was ready to sink
into the ground; and all that evening, and that night following, I was
in the uttermost consternation. My head ran upon nothing but Newgate
and the gallows, and being hanged; which, I said, I deserved, if it
were for nothing but taking that two-and-twenty shillings from the poor
old nurse.
The first thing my perplexed thoughts allowed me to take care of was my
money. This indeed lay in a little compass, and I carried it generally
all about me. I had got together, as you will perceive by the past
account, above £60 (for I spent nothing), and what to do with it I knew
not. At last it came into my head that I would go to my benefactor, the
clerk at the custom-house, if he was to be found, and see if I could
get him to take the rest of my money. The only business was to make a
plausible story to him, that he might not wonder how I came by so much
money.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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