We are now reviewing that Account in
a very different Light: we have now been let into the Secret of its Origin; we have seen her since voluntarily declare, that it was false and forg'd: not in part false, but in the Whole, and that it was the Off-spring only of her Terrors: and tho' actuated from the Influence of the same Apprehensions, she confirmed it at the Trial, she now declares it, freely and voluntarily declares it, to have been all a Perjury.
She has confessed her Motive to the doing this, and that is it was such an one, as might well have Effect upon an ignorant Creature: This I shall consider at large when I come presently to treat of her Informations. She has declared this to have been her only Motive; and those who are most concerned, do acknowledge, that she was very unwilling to give it; and was very difficultly brought to it. What Reason could she have to contradict it? None! To this no one can speak with more Authority than I: and I declare she had none. It was to myself she promis'd the Confession. I had no Advantages to offer to her, nor any Power to terrify: nor was this done privately; so that there are Witnesses who know how free and perfectly 'twas voluntary. I applied to the Lord Mayor, whom, 'till that Time, I never saw, to receive her Confession: She was
sent for; she made it; and the Consequences are natural.
The Lord Mayor had at that Time Proofs in his own Hands, as strong as even this Confession, of the perfect Innocence of the miserable Convict; and he has since received innumerable more; all more precise, and punctual; more firm and more convincing. It can be no Reflection on a Court, in which the Determination is made from Evidence, to plead the Cause of that Innocency, which is proved by the after-discover'd Falsity of such Evidence: Shame on the Folly or Malice that pretends it can, even though you, Fielding, have pretended it: nor has any thing been yet publish'd, more than what passed publickly; for the Examinations before the Lord-Mayor have not been made in Corners.
This is a Digression, but the Insinuations of bad Men have made it necessary. I shall return to the Relation. The pretty Innocent, such we should take her to be from the Story, tells us she was tempted strongly: she was promis'd fine Cloaths, if she would go their Way. This is the Account; and in the Name of Reason let us consider it. The Phrase is an odd and unnatural one; and the fine Cloaths were to be given. By whom? By one who hardly had a
Covering for herself, and in a Place where every thing spoke Beggary: Unnatural, ridiculous, and absurd!
There can be no Cause assigned, why Men should drag her many Miles, or why Women lock her up to perish, without the least Advantage, or the least Prospect of Advantage. I wish it could be said there appears no End for which all this might be pretended; although there could be none for which it should be done.
Did the prophetic Spirit of her Virtue foresee exactly the Length of her Confinement? How came she else to proportion, for it's plain she did proportion, her Eating to it? There is, indeed, no Reason why she should not have foreseen it, since the Duration was at her own Pleasure. There appears no Cause why she did not make that Escape the first Night, which she effected on the last Day at Four in the Afternoon: and as it has been thought strange that no one opposed the Persons in the Night in carrying her thither; I shall add, that I think it still more strange no one was let into the Story on her Return. Her Weakness might have made her complain; her Terror speak, and even her Countenance must have occasioned Question. People
could not be wanting to this Purpose; for she that could set out in the Afternoon to walk from Enfield-Wash to London, must be met, over-taken, or seen, by many Hundred Persons: her Figure was singular enough to have drawn the Attention of some of these, her Aspect (as you describe it) of them All: The Story has been enough spoken of to bring such People to attest it, had there been any such; but if any have appeared, it has not come to my Knowledge.