The Fortunate Mistress (Parts 1 and 2)

by Daniel Defoe

youdesire, I declare I do not."

  "Do not!" said he, "what do you mean by that? She tells me that you areher mother, and that her father ran away from you, and left two sons,and two daughters besides herself, who were all sent to their relationsfor provision, after which you ran away with a jeweller to Paris. Do youknow anything of this? answer me quickly."

  "My lord," said the girl, "there is Mrs. Amy, who was my mother'sservant at the time (as she told me herself about three months ago),knows very well I am the person I pretend to be, and caused me to bethrown into jail for debts I knew nothing of, because I should not findout my mother to make myself known to her before she left England."

  After this she told my lord everything she knew of me, even in thecharacter of Roxana, and described my dress so well, that he knew it tobe mine.

  ROXANA IS CONFRONTED WITH HER DAUGHTER

  "_Pray, madam," says he, "do you know this young woman?_"]

  When she had quite gone through her long relation, "Well, madam,"says he, "now let me see if I cannot tell how far she has told the truthin relation to you. When I first became acquainted with you, it was onthe sale of those jewels, in which I stood so much your friend, at atime that you were in the greatest distress, your substance being in thehands of the Jew; you then passed for a jeweller's widow; this agreeswith her saying you ran away with a jeweller. In the next place, youwould not consent to marry me about twelve years ago; I suppose thenyour real husband was living, for nothing else could tally with yourcondescension to me in everything except marriage. Since that time, yourrefusing to come to Holland in the vessel I had provided for you, undera distant prospect of your being with child, though in reality it wasyour having a child too much, as the captain told me of, when I, beingignorant of the case, did not understand him. Now," continued he, "shesays that you are the identical Lady Roxana which made so much noise inthe world, and has even described the robe and head-dress you wore onthat occasion, and in that I know she is right; for, to my ownknowledge, you have that very dress by you now; I having seen youdressed in it at our lodging at the Quaker's. From all thesecircumstances," says he, "I may be assured that you have imposed grosslyupon me, and instead of being a woman of honour as I took you for, Ifind that you have been an abandoned wretch, and had nothing torecommend you but a sum of money and a fair countenance, joined to afalse unrelenting heart."

  These words of my lord's struck such a damp upon my spirits, as made meunable to speak in my turn. But at last, I spoke as follows: "My lord, Ihave most patiently stood to hear all it was possible for you to allegeagainst me, which has no other proof than imagination. That I was thewife of a brewer, I have no reason now to deny, neither had I anyoccasion before to acknowledge it. I brought him a handsome fortune,which, joined to his, made us appear in a light far superior to ourneighbours. I had also five children by him, two sons and threedaughters, and had my husband been as wise as rich, we might have livedhappily together now. But it was not so, for he minded nothing butsporting, in almost every branch; and closely following of it soon runout all his substance, and then left me in an unhappy, helplesscondition. I did not send my children to my relations till the greatestnecessity drove me, and after that, hearing my husband was dead, Imarried the jeweller, who was afterwards murdered. If I had owned howmany children I had, the jeweller would not have married me, and the wayof life I was in would not keep my family, so I was forced to deny themin order to get them bread. Neither can I say that I have either heardor known anything of my children since, excepting that I heard they wereall taken care of; and this was the very reason I would not marry you,when you offered it some years since, for these children lay seriouslyat my heart, and as I did not want money, my inclination was to come toEngland, and not entail five children upon you the day of marriage."

  "Pray, madam," said my lord, interrupting me, "I do not find that youkept up to your resolutions when you got there; you were so far fromdoing your duty as a parent, that you even neglected the civility ofacquaintances, for they would have asked after them, but your wholescheme has been to conceal yourself as much as possible, and even whenyou were found out, denied yourself, as witness the case of yourdaughter here. As to the character of Lady Roxana, which you so nicelymanaged," said he, "did that become a woman that had five children,whose necessity had obliged you to leave them, to live in a continualscene of pageantry and riot, I could almost say debauchery? Look intoyour conduct, and see if you deserve to have the title or the estate younow so happily enjoy."

  After this speech, he walked about the room in a confused manner forsome minutes, and then addressed himself to Amy. "Pray, Mrs. Amy," sayshe, "give me your judgment in this case, for although I know you are asmuch as possible in your lady's interest, yet I cannot think you have solittle charity as to think she acted like a woman of worth anddiscretion. Do you really think, as you knew all of them from infants,that this young woman is your lady's daughter?"

  Amy, who always had spirits enough about her, said at once she believedthe girl was my daughter. "And truly," says she, "I think your manThomas is her eldest son, for the tale he tells of his birth andeducation suits exactly with our then circumstances."

  "Why, indeed," said my lord, "I believe so too, for I now recollect thatwhen we first took him into our service at Dover, he told me he was theson of a brewer in London; that his father had run away from his mother,and left her in a distressed condition with five children, of which hewas second child, or eldest son."

  Thomas was then called into the parlour, and asked what he knew of hisfamily; he repeated all as above, concerning his father's running awayand leaving me; but said that he had often asked and inquired afterthem, but without any success, and concluded, that he believed hisbrothers and sisters were distributed in several places, and that hismother died in the greatest distress, and was buried by the parish.

  "Indeed," said my lord, "it is my opinion that Thomas is one of yoursons; do not you think the same?" addressing himself to me.

  "From the circumstances that have been related, my lord," said I, "I nowbelieve that these are both my children; but you would have thought me amad woman to have countenanced and taken this young woman in as mychild, without a thorough assurance of it; for that would have beenrunning myself to a certain expense and trouble, without the leastglimpse of real satisfaction."

  "Pray," said my lord to my daughter, "let me know what is become ofyour brothers and sisters; give me the best account of them that youcan."

  "My lord," replied she, "agreeably to your commands, I will inform youto the best of my knowledge; and to begin with myself, who am the eldestof the five. I was put to a sister of my father's with my youngestbrother, who, by mere dint of industry, gave us maintenance andeducation, suitable to her circumstances; and she, with my uncle'sconsent, let me go to service when I was advanced in years; and amongthe variety of places I lived at, Lady Roxana's was one."

  "Yes," said Thomas, "I knew her there, when I was a valet at my LordD----'s, the next door; it was there I became acquainted with her; andshe, by the consent of the gentlewoman," pointing to Amy, "let me seethe Lady Roxana's fine vestment, which she danced in at the grand ball."

  "Well," continued my daughter, "after I left this place, I was atseveral others before I became acquainted with Mrs. Amy a second time (Iknew her before as Roxana's woman), who told me one day some thingsrelating to my mother, and from thence I concluded if she was not mymother herself (as I at first thought she was), she must be employed byher; for no stranger could profess so much friendship, where there wasno likelihood of any return, after being so many years asunder.

  "After this, I made it my business to find your lady out if possible,and was twice in her company, once on board the ship you were to havecome to Holland in, and once at the Quaker's house in the Minories,London; but as I gave her broad hints of whom I took her for, and mylady did not think proper to own me, I began to think I was mistaken,till your voyage to Holland was put off. Soon after, I was flung intoWhitechapel jail
for a false debt, but, through the recommendation ofthe jailer's wife to the annual charity of the good Lady Roberts, ofMile End, I was discharged. Whereupon I posted away, seeking my motherall down the Kent Road as far as Dover and Deal, at which last place notfinding her, I came in a coaster to London, and landing in Southwark,was immediately arrested, and confined in the Marshalsea prison, where Iremained some time, deprived of every means to let any person withoutthe prison know my deplorable state and condition, till my chum, a youngwoman, my bedfellow, who was also confined for debt, was, by agentleman, discharged. This young woman of her own free will, went, mylord, to your lodgings in