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When Butler awoke he threw his arms about, expecting to grasp his dear mistress, but finding himself disappointed, in order to make inquiry about her, and to know the time of the day, he called for his landlord, who told him his lady was a very early woman, having risen three or four hours before. Surprised at this news, he started up and ran to his portmanteau, which, when he searched, he immediately found how nicely he was tricked, yet he could not find in his heart to asperse her, or much to blame her for herself, because he lived by tricking. However, thus outwitted as he was, he sold his lady's horse, and having paid the reckoning with the remainder of the money, he made the best of his way to England, where dame fortune forsaking him, the lady poverty came to pay him a visit, and would not be persuaded to abandon him till she had brought him to a very low ebb. Being reduced to this condition, he happened one day to pick up a fresh acquaintaince with Mrs. Impudence, who accompanied him and two others to King's Gate, in Grey's Inn Lane, where they attacked and stopped a coach, but finding a vigorous resistance, were obliged to return in a hurry, and ride off as fast as they could. However, Butler was pursued, taken, and committed to Newgate, but being only found guilty of an assault, he was fined £100 and confined twelve months.
At length procuring his liberty, he fell to his old courses on the highway, in conjunction with one Nodes, an upholsterer's son, at Fleetditch, where they continued their depredations for a length of time, and amassed a great deal of money. Being warned in a dream, after a night of dreadful debauch and sensuality, of what his present wicked course would bring him to, and happening to hear a most impressive sermon on the suffering of the damned in hell, he at length determined to quit his sinful courses of life. He therefore relinquished his iniquitous gain, dispensing it in charity, and returned to his friends in Ireland, where he passed the remainder of his life in penance and mortification.
JACK WITHERS.
Jack's father was a poor labourer in Athlone. Poverty and want of employment obliged his father to set off for Dublin, and Jack accompanied him. In that seminary of vice he became acquainted with some young pickpockets, and, imitating their conduct, he was detected and sent to Flanders as a soldier.
