about three o’clock in the
morning
But when he sent for me , he behaved much better than I expected , and told me plainly he had played the fool , and suffered himself to be surprised , which he might have prevented ; that now he foresaw he could not stand it , and therefore he would have me go home , and in the night take away everything I had in the house of any value , and secure it ; and after that , he told me that if I could get away one hundred or two hundred pounds in goods out of the shop , I should do it ; `` only , '' says he , `` let me know nothing of it , neither what you take nor whither you carry it ; for as for me , '' says he , `` I am resolved to get out of this house and be gone ; and if you never hear of me more , my dear , '' says he , `` I wish you well ; I am only sorry for the injury I have done you . '' He said some very handsome things to me indeed at parting ; for I told you he was a gentleman , and that was all the benefit I had of his being so ; that he used me very handsomely and with good manners upon all occasions , even to the last , only spent all I had , and left me to rob the creditors for something to subsist on . However , I did as he bade me , that you may be sure ; and having thus taken my leave of him , I never saw him more , for he found means to break out of the bailiff 's house that night or the next , and go over into France , and for the rest of the creditors scrambled for it as well as they could . How , I knew not , for I could come at no knowledge of anything , more than this , that he came home about three o'clock in the morning , caused the rest of his goods to be removed into the Mint , and the shop to be shut up ; and having raised what money he could get together , he got over , as I said , to France , from whence I had one or two letters from him , and no more . I did not see him when he came home , for he having given me such instructions as above , and I having made the best of my time , I had no more business back again at the house , not knowing but I might have been stopped there by the creditors ; for a commission of bankrupt being soon after issued , they might have stopped me by orders from the commissioners . But my husband , having so dexterously got out of the bailiff 's house by letting himself down in a most desperate manner from almost the top of the house to the top of another building , and leaping from thence , which was almost two storeys , and which was enough indeed to have broken his neck , he came home and got away his goods before the creditors could come to seize ; that is to say , before they could get out the commission , and be ready to send their officers to take possession . My husband was so civil to me , for still I say he was much of a gentleman , that in the first letter he wrote me from France , he let me know where he had pawned twenty pieces of fine holland for £ 30 , which were really worth £ 90 , and enclosed me the token and an order for the taking them up , paying the money , which I did , and made in time above £ 100 of them , having leisure to cut them and sell them , some and some , to private families , as opportunity offered .