petition finely written out, dressed myself the best I could, the next day, and went to court, where I did not stay long before her majesty came down the great stairs, (at the bottom of which I had planted myself,) led by the duke of Argyle, who I suppose was talking of me, because her majesty eyed me very earnestly, and his grace often smiled upon me. As soon as she came down, I fell on my right knee, as I had been instructed by the yeomen of the guard, and delivered my petition, which the queen was graciously pleased to receive with a smile, and helping me up, said, It should be her care to provide for me; and perceiving me with child, added, If you are delivered of a boy I will give him a commission as soon as he is born: but to my sorrow, it proved a girl, who has caused me great trouble and vexation. Her majesty was further pleased to give me an order to the earl of Oxford for fifty pounds, to defray the charge of my lying-in. I often waited on that noble lord, but could neither get money nor access, which I humbly represented to the queen, who gave me, in her great goodness, a second order for that sum to sir William Windham, who paid it me without the trouble of going twice to receive it.

Some time after I was brought to bed of the child I went with when I presented my petition to the queen, lord Forrester and lord Fofard ordered me to be at the King's Arms in Pall-mall, where they were to dine with some other noblemen and gentlemen of the army, designing to make a collection for my immediate support. I was punctual to the time their lordships had appointed; but none of the company being yet come, I waited at the door, with my child in my arms. While I was at my post, a soldier who had served abroad seeing me, very wisely concluded that I was a lewd woman, and began to treat me as such in the grossest language; and after a volley of G-d d-me's, mixed with the common flowers of rhetoric b-h and w-re, said, it was a burning shame the nobility should encourage a pack

of idle lewd b-s, and support them and their bds with that bread which they ought rather to distribute among such as had ventured their lives, and spilled their blood in the service of their country; he concluded this friendly salutation with a blow of his stick across my breasts. The language he had given me was provocation sufficient to inflame me; but a blow was an indignity never before put upon me, and enraged me to such a degree, that not considering I had the child in one arm, I flew upon him, and began to belabour him with my right fist. A drawer who saw the disadvantage I was under, took the child from me, and having both hands at liberty, I gave him such a thorough beating, that he cried out for quarter; but I, deaf to everything but resentment, rolled him in the kennel, and had demolished him if he had not promised to beg pardon in the most submissive manner, which indeed he did, alleging in defence of his insolence that he did not know me, but now that he was informed who I was, he was ready to acknowledge I deserved whatever was done for me, and would show me more respect for the future. Out of evil, it is said, often comes good this insult, and the consequential battle, proved very lucky to me, for it happened as the quality was returning from court, who stopped their chariots to be spectators of the fray, in which I received neither hurt nor loss, but that of my sarcenet hood being torn, which however was amply repaired by the money lord Harvey and the marquis of Winchester threw me out of the tavern window, and that I had from others of the nobility, which amounted to upwards of nine pounds, beside a large quantity of untouched provisions from the tables of such quality as dined at the King's Arms that day.

A few days after this, as I was sauntering in the Court of Requests, I met with two of my countrywomen who sold fruit, &c.: one of them, a single woman, named Judith, was my acquaintance in Ireland; the other,

whose name was Mary, had only two husbands, one living in Ireland, and one in Drury-lane. This latter, as two of a trade can never agree, took it into her head to reflect on the reputation of the former, who, good-natured girl, always traded on her own bottom, whereas the other not only dealt on her own stock, but got money also by other folks' wares. As I was

talking with Judith, I thought it a piece of impertinence, and an insult upon me, to attack her at that time, which I resented by giving her first a severe thrashing, and next, in a public manner, the discipline schoolmasters give their idle scholars, which afforded no small diversion to the spectators, especially to the gentlemen of the livery.

On a Saturday morning, the 15th of November, 1712, having some business at Kensington, as I went through Hyde Park, I saw four gentlemen jump over the ditch into the nursery, which made me suspect a duel, and hasten towards them to endeavour, if possible, to prevent mischief; but I could not get time enough, for they all four drew and engaged, two and two, with great animosity; one, who I found was colonel Hamilton, instantly closed in and disarmed his antagonist, general Macartney, and at the same time the other two fell, the one upon the other. These were lord Mohun, and the duke of Hamilton; the former fell dead upon the spot, and the latter expired soon after. Colonel Hamilton was wounded in the instep, and Macartney, as some keepers came up, walked off, and was not taken; though a reward of several hundred pounds was offered for the apprehending him. Had I been examined as a witness in this affair, my affidavit might, possibly, have left no doubt; but it was very happy for me I was not thought of, as my evidence would in all probability have made enemies of my friends; having often experienced the charity of several noblemen, intimates of the deceased lords, and I must have disobliged one side, as I should have

sworn to the truth of what my eyes had witnessed: which, as it is not now material, I shall not declare, but refer my readers to the history of those times.

It was not long after this, that, instigated by a strong desire to see my friends and native country, which I had not visited for some years, my circumstances being very easy by the queen's bounty, and the charitable assistance of the nobility, and officers of the army, I wrote to my mother to let her know I would be in Dublin in a short time, and indeed got there before her, who, though upwards of a hundred years of age, travelled ten miles on foot to give me the meeting. The poor old woman, who had long given me over for dead, having in so many years heard nothing from or of me, wept for joy, and in such an excessive manner, when she embraced me, that I could not refrain mingling my tears with hers, my transport being equally as great. Upon inquiry after my children, I learned that the elder of them died at the age of eighteen, and that the younger was in the workhouse. The nurse, with whom, at my departure, I had left the best of my goods, together with my child, soon threw him upon the parish: her tenderness for my poor infant being measured by her interest, she was soon tired of the burden he was to her. Indeed, but one of those with whom I had intrusted my effects, was honest enough to give me any account of them, and that was Mr. Howell, father to the person who ruined my virgin innocence; all the others, like the nurse, thought the possession I had given them warranted their converting my goods to their own use, and looked upon me as an unreasonable woman to expect a return. My misfortune was, that the honest man had but few, and those the worst of my goods, which he kept safe, and restored justly. I had no better luck with regard to my house; for the person whom I left in it, when I went to Holland, dying, one Bennet set up a claim to it as his freehold, and got possession, there being none

in my absence to contest his title, and I could not out him, as my writings were lost or destroyed: and indeed what could I have done had I had those evidences? I had not money sufficient to carry me through a lawsuit, and to expect justice without money, is much the same as to think of reducing a fortified town without ammunition: I was therefore compelled to sit down by my loss, and think on some method to get an honest living. As I had before kept a public house, and was used to sutling in the army, I could thing on nothing better than that of my former; and accordingly, I took a house, put in a stock of beer, and by this and making pies I got a comfortable support, till my evil genius entangled me in a third marriage with a soldier named Davies. He had served in the first regiment of foot guards in the Low Countries, but on the conclusion of the peace between France and the high allies, he was, at his own request, discharged from the service. His father dying during his absence, and leaving him a small patrimony, he left Flanders and went to his brother, who lived near Chester, to take possession of the provision his father had made for him; but his brother, who had lain hold of it, and knew he was not in circumstances to compel him to do justice, made a jest of his pretensions, and to this day keeps to himself what their father had designed for his support. This unexpected disappointment obliged him to betake himself, once more, to a military life, and coming over to Dublin, he was enrolled in the Welch fusileers. After my marriage with this man, I continued on my public business, till his regiment was ordered to Hereford, in the first year of king George I., when a weak effort was made in favour of the Pretender. I stayed behind him in Dublin no longer than was absolutely necessary to dispose of my effects; which having done, I got a pass from the secretary of war, and followed my husband to Hereford; from thence I went to Glocester, designing for London, where I intended to settle. The Jacobites

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