Page:Memoirs James Hardy Vaux.djvu/68

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pany. Our bundles being next inspected, were found to contain nothing of a suspicious nature, except a number of pawnbrokers' duplicates, and these we respectively accounted for as relating to wearing apparel, &c., which our pecuniary distress had obliged us to pledge. This part of the story was indeed strictly true, and in any case corroborated, and gave an air of probability to my account. Nothing appearing to warrant the detention of my companion, he was discharged, but with a positive order to quit the town instantly. As to myself, having mentioned in answer to a query from one of the magistrates, the name of a certain gentleman, in London, who knew me and my family, his worship declared he was himself intimately acquainted with that gentleman, and as he was going to town the next day, he should make a point of referring to him as to the truth of my assertion. He therefore ordered a constable to detain me in custody until his return from London. I was accordingly confined in the officer's house, where I had every necessary accommodation, for the expense of which the magistrate himself very kindly became accountable. My companion visited me the same evening, prior to his departure, and I divided with him the money I had acquired. It was his intention to proceed direct to Portsmouth, and I promised, as soon as I was liberated to follow him, taking a direction whereby to find him on my arrival.