Page:Memoirs James Hardy Vaux.djvu/356

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petuosity. Having got a few yards from the house, they stopped to view me by the light of a lamp, and one of them having attentively surveyed my features (probably to compare them with the advertisement) said to his fellow, "I'm sure we are right, Jack; he answers the description; come along." As they were conducting me to St. Martin's Watch-house, they put several questions to me, respecting my knowledge of a jeweller's shop in Piccadilly, my being tried at the Old Bailey, in November sessions, &c.; all which were of course unavailing, as I denied any knowledge of their meaning, but which too well convinced me that they had a thorough knowledge of my person and character, acquired no doubt from the treacherous information of some of my dissolute acquaintances. One of them observed, that if they had not met with me this night, they should have done so the next day at the fight, so that it had only prevented them from seeing the battle: perhaps, they only surmised that I should have gone there, it being the custom for most of the London thieves to attend such spectacles; but I have sometimes thought my intention of going was communicated to them, either by the person I was to have accompanied, or by the landlord who delivered me his open note on the subject. The other observed, that I had made a good thing of it at the Haymarket the preceding summer; adding, "We wondered who the devil it was, that was so busy there; we did not know you so well