This first ill consequence of this fray was, that the woman they had
taken, who was really the thief, made off, and got clear away in the
crowd; and two other that they had stopped also; whether they were
really guilty or not, that I can say nothing to.
By this time some of his neighbours having come in, and, upon inquiry,
seeing how things went, had endeavoured to bring the hot-brained mercer
to his senses, and he began to be convinced that he was in the wrong;
and so at length we went all very quietly before the justice, with a
mob of about five hundred people at our heels; and all the way I went I
could hear the people ask what was the matter, and other reply and say,
a mercer had stopped a gentlewoman instead of a thief, and had
afterwards taken the thief, and now the gentlewoman had taken the
mercer, and was carrying him before the justice. This pleased the
people strangely, and made the crowd increase, and they cried out as
they went, 'Which is the rogue? which is the mercer?' and especially
the women. Then when they saw him they cried out, 'That's he, that's
he'; and every now and then came a good dab of dirt at him; and thus we
marched a good while, till the mercer thought fit to desire the
constable to call a coach to protect himself from the rabble; so we
rode the rest of the way, the constable and I, and the mercer and his
man.
When we came to the justice, which was an ancient gentleman in
Bloomsbury, the constable giving first a summary account of the matter,
the justice bade me speak, and tell what I had to say. And first he
asked my name, which I was very loth to give, but there was no remedy,
so I told him my name was Mary Flanders, that I was a widow, my husband
being a sea captain, died on a voyage to Virginia; and some other
circumstances I told which he could never contradict, and that I lodged
at present in town with such a person, naming my governess; but that I
was preparing to go over to America, where my husband's effects lay,
and that I was going that day to buy some clothes to put myself into
second mourning, but had not yet been in any shop, when that fellow,
pointing to the mercer's journeyman, came rushing upon me with such
fury as very much frighted me, and carried me back to his master's
shop, where, though his master acknowledged I was not the person, yet
he would not dismiss me, but charged a constable with me.