This was rather an unfortunate adventure, to have lost so much time and given so many blows for so little; but, returning home, he observed a goldsmith, who was a far richer prize than a butcher, telling a large sum of money in his shop. His eyes instantly sparkled, and his invention awoke. He went into an old shop in the vicinity, and purchased one farthing’s worth of salt. Then, hastening into the goldsmith’s shop, he threw the whole in his eyes; so that while he was rubbing his peepers, and stamping with rage, Bunce went off with about fifty pounds—a tolerable return for the outlay of a farthing.
It is an old proverb, “Lightly come, lightly go.” The same evening, having gone to recreate himself in the company of certain females, he was robbed of twenty pounds, when, in the most furious manner, though to no purpose, he vented his imprecations against all the sex, asserting, that “every woman was a crocodile at ten, a fury at thirty, and a witch at four-score.”
Under the influence of vexatious disappointment, Bunce soon spent the remainder of his fifty pounds, and stern necessity again impelled him to action. Along with one of his trusty companions, he went into a wollen-draper’s shop, just as the good man was about to shut up; and, while he was cheapening a remnant of cloth, his companion stole the key of the shop from its usual resting place; upon which they both went off without making a purchase. Favored by the darkness of the night, they returned, and, without interruption or difficulty, extracted from the shop cloth to the amount of eighty pounds.
Bunce having been afterwards, by an order of the court, sent a soldier into Spain, while there, he and his comrades were one day in great want of victuals, and, having loitered all day about the market-place of Barcelona without finding any thing to remove their hunger, they discovered, in the evening, a countryman returning home on an ass. They followed him, and, having to ascend a steep hill, he alighted and led the ass. Bunce, with his companion, slipped quietly forward, and dexterously removing the bridle from the ass’s head to his own, his comrade went off with the ass, and Bunce trudged after the man upon all-fours. Arrived at the top of the hill, he looked around, and, to his great consternation and amazement, saw his ass transformed into a man.
Stephen, observing his surprise, said, “Dear master, don’t be troubled at this strange alteration that you see in your beast; for, indeed, I was no ass, as you supposed me, but a man, real flesh and blood, as you yourself are: but you must know, that it being my misfortune to commit a sin against the Virgin Mary, she resented it so heinously, that she transformed me into the likeness of an ass for seven years; and now, the time being expired, I resume my proper shape again, and am at my own disposal. However, sir, I return you many thanks for your goodness towards me; for since I have been in your custody, you have put me to no more labor than what I, you, or any other ass, might be able to bear.”
The countryman was greatly surprised at the relation, but was well satisfied, on receiving the grateful thanks of his former ass for the kind treatment he had given him during the period of his degradation. Stephen returned to his comrade, who had made the ass undergo another transmigration into money, so that these two hungry sharks hastened to set their teeth at work, lest they should lose the power of action by long disuse. Meanwhile, the countryman returned to town to purchase another ass to carry him home. But, to his astonishment, the first thing he met with was his own individual ass. Stepping up to the animal, he said, “Oh! I see that you have committed another sin against the Virgin Mary, but I shall take care how I buy you again.”
Bunce was married to a victualler’s daughter in Plymouth, and for some time lived with her with tolerable regularity, making the table roar, and the bowl to foam, and entertaining all the merry beaux of the town, until one of the tars offended Bunce by his politeness. Upon this, he left his young wife, and plunged into all those scenes of debauchery which are the usual attendants of the acquisition of money by unlawful means. In the progress of time his manners became so abandoned and profligate, and his conversation so loose, that he was the abhorrence of all decent persons, and a disgrace to human nature. He was at last detected in his wickedness, and suffered at Tyburn in the year 1707, in company with Dick Low and Jack Hall, whose histories are not of sufficient interest to warrant their insertion in these pages.
JACK OVET.
Jack Ovet was born at Nottingham, and, after serving an apprenticeship to a shoemaker, for some time gained his bread by that industrious and useful employment: but his licentious dispositions inclining him to profligate and abandoned company, he soon took to the highway.
After having purchased a horse, pistols, and every necessary utensil proper to his projected profession, he rode towards London, and on the way robbed a gentleman of twenty pounds. That gentleman, however, not destitute of courage, and unwilling to part with his money, told Ovet, that if he had not taken him unawares, he would not so easily have plundered him of his property. The son of Crispin was not destitute of the essential qualifications of his new profession; he, therefore, replied, that he had already ventured his life for his twenty pounds; “but,” continued he, “here’s your money again, and whoever is the better man, let him win it and wear it.” The proposal being agreed to, and both employing their swords, the gentleman fell, and Ovet had the money.