THE EMPRESS OF THE

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5427, 30 November 1895, Page 2

THE EMPRESS OF THE

THIEVES.

(ITaemittan" glTagaeine.) The most illustrious woman of an illus--riouß age, Moll Cutpurse, has never lacked the recognition due to her ganuis. Bhe was scarce of age when the town devoured in gresdy admiration the firat /eoord of her pranks and exploits. A year later Middleton made her the heroine of a iparkling comedy. Thereafter she became the favourite of the ruffler-,* the commonplace of the poete. Newgate knew her, fend Fleet Street; her manly figure was as familiar in the Bear Garden as at the Devil Tavern; .ourted alike by tho thief and hiß victim, tor fifty years Bhe lived a life brilliant as auulight, many coloured bb a rainbow. And she is remembered, after the lapse of •i-mturies, not only as the Queen Begent of : Misrule, the benevolent tyrant of clyfllera and heavers, of hacks and blades, but : «s the incomparable Soaring Girl, free of 'Hie play-house, who perchance # presided 'With Ben Jbhsoh over the Parliament of -Wits. She was born in the Barbican, at '%c heyday of England's greatness, four yeara after the glorious defeat of the Armada, and had for her father an honest thoemaker. While other girls were content to horn a rer chief or mark a sampler, Moll wouldasoape to the Bear Garden, and there enjoy the sport of baiting, whose loyal patron ihe remained unto the end. That which most bitterly affronted her was

THB UAQVIS TAfiK OF THE WENCHES. Ser entrance into a gang of thieves waa beset by no difficulty. The Boar Garden, Always her favourite resort, had made her acquainted with all the divera and rumpads of the town. The time, moreover, was favourable to enterprise, and once again was genius born into a golden age. The cutting of purses was an art brought to perfection, and already the more elegant praotioe, of picking pockets was understood. The. transition gave scope for endless ingenuity, and Moll waß not alow in mastering the . theory of either craft. It was a changing fashion of dress whioh forced a new taotio upon the thief; the pocket was invented, maybe, because the hanging purse was too easy a prey for the thievish scissors. But no sooner did the world conceal its wealth in pockets than the oly-filer was born to extract the booty with his long, nimble fingers. And the trick was managed with an admirable forethought, which has been a constant example to after ages. Tbe file was always accompanied by a bulk, whose duty it was to jostle and distract the viotim while his pockets were rifled. The bung, or what not, was rapidly passed on to the attendant rub, who scurried off before the cry of Stop thief I could be raised.

Now. though she was never a clumsy Jade, the praotice of sword-play and quarter-Btaff had not refined the industry of her hands, whioh were the rather framed for strength than for delicacy. So that, though she selrved a willing apprenticeship, and eagerly shared the risks of her chosen trade, the fear of Newgate and Tyburn weighed heavily upon her spirit, and she cast about her for a method of escape. But avoiding the danger of discovery, Bhe was loth to forego her just profit, and hoped that intelligence might atone for her sturdy, inactive fingers. Alxeady she had

ENDBABBD HXBSBLT TO THE GANG by unnumbered acts of kindness and generosity* already her inflexible justice had made her umpire in many a difficult dispute. ' If a rascal could be bought off at the gallows' foot, there waa Moll with an open purse ; and so speedily did Bhe penetrate all the secrets of thievish policy, that her counsel and comfort were soon indispensable. Here, then, was her opportunity. Always a diplomatist rather than aY general, ehe gave up the battlefield for the counoil chamber. She planned the robberies which defter hands achieved ; and, turning herself from ely-filer to fence, ■he received and changed to money all the watohea and trinkets stolen by the gang. Having drilled her army of divers to an ' unparalleled activity, she cast about for some fresh method of warfare, and thus enrolled a regiment of heavers, who wonld lurk at the mercers' doors for an opportunity to carry off ledgers and account-books. The price of xedemption was fixed by Moll herself, and until the mercers were aroused by frequent losses to a quicker vigilance, the trade was profitably secure. Meanwhile new clients were ever seeking her aid, and, already empress of the thieveß, she presently aspired to the friendship and patronage of the highwaymen. Though ■he did not dispose of their booty, she was appointed their banker, and vaijt was the; treasure entrusted to '.' the; coetebb ov honest moll. Fox others the arbiter of life and death, »he waa only thrice in an unexampled career confronted with the law. Her first occasion of arrest was bo paltry that it brought disoredit only on the constable. This jack-in-orßce, a very Dogberry, encountered Moll returning down Ludgate Hill from some merrymaking, a lan thorn carried pompously before her. Startled by hat attiro he questioned her closely, and receiving insult for answer, promptly carried her to the Bound House. The customary garnish made her free of the prison, and next morning a brief interview with the Lord Mayor restored Moll to liberty, but not to forgetf nines.. She had yet to wreak her vengeance npon the constable for a monstrous affront, and hearing presently that he had a rich uncle in Shropshire, she killed the old gentleman (in imagination) and made the constable hia heir, instantly a retainer, in the true garb and accent of the country, carried the news to Dogberry, and sent him off to Ludlow oh the costliest of fool's errands. He purchased a horse and sot forth joyously as became a man! of property, but he limped home broken in purse and spirit

THB HAPJYEBB OBJECT OT BIDICULK AND

CONTEMPT.

Perhaps. he guessed the author of thiß sprightly outrage; but Moll, for her part, was too finished a humorist to reveal the truth, and hereafter ehe was content to swell the jesting chorus. Her Becond encounter with justice was no mere plea* aautry, and it was only her marvellous generalship that snatched her career from untimely ruin and herself from the clutch of Master Gregory. Two of her emissaries had encountered a farmer in Chancery Lane. They spoke with him first at Smithfield, and knew tbat his pocket was well lined with bank-notes. An improvised quarrel at a tavern door threw the farmer off his guard, and though he defended the money, his watch wbb snatched from his fob and duly carried to Moll. The next day the victim, anxious to repurchase hie watch, repaired to Fleet Street, where Moll generously promised to recover

* For the benefit of the uninitiated we append a glossary ol the terms in use among tho various professions patronised by Moll ana her friends. JRvjlera, notoriouc rofjues. Cly-filers, Divers, pickpockets. Heavers, stealers of tradesmen's books. Hacks, Blades, Eumpods, highwaymen. File, the fickpooket. Buno, the purse. Rui, the runner. 'ence, a receiver of stolen goods. Purchases, stolen goods. To mnch, to steal. JPWjs, thieves. Cornish, {ae.(oet»g_<aid by prisoners on first comin. in.

the stolen property. Bnt unhappily security had encouraged recklessness, and as the farmer turned to leave he espied his own watch hanging with other trinkets upon the wall. With a rare discretion he held hiß peace until he had called a constable to his aid, and this time the Roaring Girl was lodged in Newgate, with

AN UGLY CRIME LAID TO HER CHARGE.

Committed for trial, she demanded that the watch should be left in the constable's keeping, and, pleading not guilty when the sessions came round, insisted that her watoh and the farmer's were not the Bame. The farmer, anxious to acknowledge his property, demanded tho constable to deliver the watoh, that it might be Bworn to in open court ; but when the constable put his hand to his pocket the only piece of damning evidence had vanished, stolen by the nimble fingers of one of Moll'e officers. Thus, with admirable trickery and a perfect eenso of dramatic effect, she contrived her escape, and never again ran the risk of a Budden discovery. Her trade flourished, and she lived a life of comfort, of plenty even, until the Civil War threw her out of work. When an unnatural conflict set the whole country at loggerheads, what occasion was there for the honest prig P And it is not surprising that, like all the gentlemen adventurers of the age, Moll remained most stubbornly loyal to the King's cause. She made the conduit in Fleet Street run with wine when Charles came to London in 1638 ; and it was her amiable pleasantry to give the name of Strafford to a clever, cunning bull, and to dub the dogs that assailed him Pym, Hampden, and the rest; and right heartily did she applaud the courage of Strafford as he threw off his unwary assailants. So long as the quarrel laßted, she was compelled to follow a profession more ancient than the fence's; for there iB one passion whioh war itself cannot extinguish. But onoe the King had laid his head " down as upon a bed," once the Protector had proclaimed his supremacy, the industry of the road revived; and there was not a single diver or rumpad that did not declare eternal war upon

THS BLACK-HEARTED BIOIOIDXS. With a laudable devotion to her chosen cause, Moll despatched the moat experienced of her gang to rob Lady Fairfax on her way to church ; and there is a tradi-' tion that the Soaring Girl, hearing that Fairfax would pasß by Hounslow, rode forth to meet him, and with her own voice bade him stand and deliver. But it is certain that, with Captain Hind and Mull Sack to aid, she schemed many a clever plot against the Soundheads, and nobly she played her part in avenging the martyred King.