it may cost you half as much as they are worth; so I think it would be a much better way to prevent their coming at them at all.'
'But what course can I take to do that', says I, 'now they have got notice that I have them? If they get me into their hands they will oblige me to produce them, or perhaps sentence me to prison till I do.'
'Nay', says he, 'as this brute says, too, put you to the question that is, to the torture, on pretence of making you confess who were the murderers of your husband.'
'Confess!' said I. 'How can I confess what I know nothing of?'
'If they come to have you to the rack'; said he, 'they will make you confess you did it yourself, whether you did it or no, and then you are cast.'
The very word rack frighted me to death almost, and I had no spirit left in me. 'Did it myself!' said I. 'That's impossible!'
'No, madam', says he, '’tis far from impossible. The most innocent people in the world have been forced to confess themselves guilty of what they never heard of, much less had any hand in.'
'What, then, must I do?' said I. 'What would you advise me to?'
'Why', says he, 'I would advise you to be gone. You intended to go away in four or five days, and you may as well go in two days; and, if you can do so, I shall manage it so that he shall not suspect your being gone for several days after.' Then he told me how the rogue would have me ordered to bring the jewels the next day for sale, and that then he would have me apprehended; how he had made the Jew believe he would join with him in his design, and that he (the merchant) would get the jewels into his hands. 'Now', says the merchant, 'I shall give you bills for the money you desired, immediately, and such as shall not fail of being paid. Take your jewels with you, and go this very evening to St Germain-en-Laye; I'll send a man thither with you, and from thence he shall guide you to-morrow to Rouen, where there lies a ship of mine, just ready to sail for Rotterdam; you shall have your passage in that ship on my account, and I will send orders for him to sail as soon as you are on board, and a letter to my friend at Rotterdam to entertain and take care of you.'
This was too kind an offer for me, as things stood, not to be accepted, and be thankful for; and, as to going away, I had prepared everything for parting, so that I had little to do but to go back, take two or three boxes and bundles, and such things, and my maid Amy, and be gone.
Then the merchant told me the measures he had resolved to take to delude the Jew while I made my escape, which was very well contrived indeed. 'First', said he, 'when he comes to-morrow I shall tell him that I proposed to you to leave the jewels with me, as we agreed, but that you said you would come and bring them in the afternoon, so that we must stay for you till four o'clock; but then, at that time, I will show a letter from you, as if just come in, wherein you shall excuse your not coming, for that some company came to visit you, and prevented you; but that you desire me to take care that the gentleman be ready to buy your jewels, and that you will come to-morrow at the same hour, without fail.
'When to-morrow is come, we shall wait at the time, but you not appearing, I shall seem most dissatisfied, and wonder what can be the reason; and so we shall agree to go the next day to get out a process against you. But the next day, in the morning, I'll send to give him
