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112

CHAPTER XI.

Obtain an Employment as Clerk and Shopman.—Rob my Employers, and embezzle several sums of Money.—Quit this Service, and am soon after taken in custody, and committed to the Bastille[1].

NOTWITHSTANDING the promise I had given Mr. Presland, I could not reconcile myself to the S——shire journey; the shame I felt at having quitted my honourable station in the navy, as well as some other reasons, and perhaps, above all, the unavoidable destiny which awaited me, concurred to prevent my taking the salutary advice of my worthy and respected friend. Having, therefore, privately changed my place of abode, I began to consider how I should procure another employment in town, and for this purpose I carefully examined the advertisements in the daily papers, my intention being now to enter into a mercantile clerkship, or to engage as assistant in a retail shop, hoping thereby (with shame I confess it,) to have a better opportunity of realizing money by fraud or robbery, than I could expect in the restricted capacity of an attorney's clerk.

  1. The cant name for the House of Correction, in Cold-bath-fields.