E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Linda Cantoni, Tonya Allen,
and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders
A SET OF ROGUES
NAMELY
CHRISTOPHER SUTTON, JOHN DAWSON, THE SEÑOR DON SANCHEZ DEL CASTILLO DECASTELAÑA AND MOLL DAWSON
Their Wicked Conspiracy, and a True Account of their Travels andAdventures
THE MARRIAGE OF MOLL DAWSON BY SINFUL MEANS TO A WORTHY GENTLEMAN OFMERIT; HER FALL, REMORSE AND GREAT SORROW; HER SECOND EXPEDITION WITHHER FORMER ROGUISH COMPANIONS INTO STRANGE PLACES
HER ATONEMENT TO MR. RICHARD GODWIN (WHEREBY SHE RENDERS UP ALL SHE EVERHAD OF HIM AND MORE) AND SELLING OF HERSELF TO ALGERINE PIRATES ANDGOING INTO BARBARY A SLAVE; TOGETHER WITH THE TRIBULATIONS OF THOSE WHOLED HER TO WRONG DOING, AND MANY OTHER SURPRISING THINGS NOW DISCLOSEDFOR THE FIRST TIME AS THE FAITHFUL CONFESSION OF CHRISTOPHER SUTTON
BY
FRANK BARRETT
1895
A SET OF ROGUES.
CHAPTER I.
Of my companions and our adversities, and in particular from ourgetting into the stocks at Tottenham Cross to our being robbed atEdmonton.
There being no plays to be acted at the "Red Bull," because of thePlague, and the players all cast adrift for want of employment, certainof us, to wit, Jack Dawson and his daughter Moll, Ned Herring, andmyself, clubbed our monies together to buy a store of dresses, paintedcloths, and the like, with a cart and horse to carry them, and thusprovided set forth to travel the country and turn an honest penny, inthose parts where the terror of pestilence had not yet turned men'sstomachs against the pleasures of life. And here, at our setting out,let me show what kind of company we were. First, then, for our master,Jack Dawson, who on no occasion was to be given a second place; he was ahale, jolly fellow, who would eat a pound of beef for his breakfast(when he could get it), and make nothing of half a gallon of aletherewith,--a very masterful man, but kindly withal, and pleasant tolook at when not contraried, with never a line of care in his face,though turned of fifty. He played our humorous parts, but he had a sweetvoice for singing of ditties, and could fetch a tear as readily as alaugh, and he was also exceeding nimble at a dance, which was thestrangest thing in the world, considering his great girth. Wife he hadnone, but Moll Dawson was his daughter, who was a most sprightly, merrylittle wench, but no miracle for beauty, being neither child nor womanat this time; surprisingly thin, as if her frame had grown out ofproportion with her flesh, so that her body looked all arms and legs,and her head all mouth and eyes, with a great towzled mass of chestnuthair, which (off the stage) was as often as not half tumbled over hershoulder. But a quicker little baggage at mimicry (she would play anypart, from an urchin of ten to a crone of fourscore), or a livelier atdancing of Brantles or the single Coranto never was, I do think, and asmerry as a grig. Of Ned Herring I need only here say that he was themost tearing villain imaginable on the stage, and off it the mostcivil-spoken, honest-seeming young gentleman. Nor need I trouble to givea very lengthy description of myself; what my character was will appearhereafter, and as for my looks, the less I say about them, the better.Being something of a scholar and a poet, I had nearl