While the prisoners were regaling themselves over what liquor _Tom_ the _Cat_’s adventure unexpectedly afforded them, _Hugh_, known by the name of _Hugh of the Borough_, reminded one of his fellow-prisoners of telling his story, which he was going to begin, when they were interrupted by the introduction of the new prisoner the _Cat_, for, as he told him, he and the rest had just finished their narratives, and it only remained, for him to go on with his; in compliance therefore of this reasonable demand: _Tom Traveller_, so he was called, commenced his history in the following procedure. _The_ LIFE _of_ TOM TRAVELLER. As I was begot, conceived and born in a most extraordinary manner, so it will appear in the course of my life, that my adventures, even in abstract, as I shall relate them, have been equally amazing. My mother was treacherously deluded by an opiate infused into a glass of wine, when she had the good or ill-fortune (I know not which) of being debauched in her sleep by her master, the husband of a woman of quality with whom she lived; I was the result of this piece of treachery; nor did my mother give the least intimations of her discovering this foul practice, though she on awaking, could not but perceive the alteration from that of a maid, to that of a woman. When she had got rid of me in the most private manner, (for she left her lady, when the signs of pregnancy appeared) she took me wrapt up in a basket, and going to a publick house in _Piccadilly_, she called for a gill of wine, drank it, and leaving a guinea to be changed, she went out and was seen no more, but she left me in her stead, thinking me and the guinea, a tolerable bargain for a gill of wine, nor had I remained there long, before I made my host of the tavern, sensible, that he had got a new guest; as I was a fine boy, and he had no child, he put me out to nurse, resolving to adopt me as his own, since I was a _comeby_-chance, and since he thought it cruel not to give the same reception to a human creature, as is given commonly to a Cat or a Dog, and tho’ I did not come of my own accord, like a Cat, or a Dog, yet was I brought, and could not be supposed to intrude myself, as those creatures do, when they have lost their masters, so he thought me more worthy of a welcome, than either of the above animals. When I was five years old, I was brought home by the nurse, and as they saw I was a promising child of my age, being as lusty and tall, as the waiter, who was twelve, but born a dwarf, I was soon fit to be called to the bar, I improved myself in observations on men, and manners, which I made my study, till about eighteen, I became one of the knowing ones, when I left my supposed father, to join a set of gamblers, where I learnt every thing to qualify me for Bath, the races, or even Ar——r’s. I resolved to leave this life, took the high-road, and bought a fine horse at Newmarket with what money I had won there by betting and cheating,