This Conſideration gave him no little Uneaſineſs, till Betty, the elder Siſter, was ſo kind ſome time afterwards entirely to cure him by a Hint, that one Will Barnes, and not himſelf, had been the firſt Seducer of Molly; and that the little Child, which he had hitherto ſo certainly concluded to be his own, might very probably have an equal Title at leaſt, to claim Barnes for its Father.
Jones eagerly purſued this Scent when he had firſt received it; and in a very ſhort Time was ſufficiently aſſured that the Girl had told him Truth, not only by the Confeſſion of the Fellow, but, at laſt, by that of Molly herſelf.
This Will Barnes was a Country Gallant, and had acquired as many Trophies of this Kind as any Enſign or Attorney’s Clerk in the Kingdom. He had, indeed, reduced ſeveral Women to a State of utter Profligacy, had broken the Hearts of ſome, and had the Honour of occaſioning the violent Death of one poor Girl, who had either drowned herſelf, or, what was rather more probably, had been drowned by him.
Among
