 more jests of the same kind,
but a small taste will suffice.«
    »It is a common saying that men should take warning by any signal delivery;
but I cannot approve the justice of it; for to me it seems that the acquittal of
a guilty person should rather inspire him with confidence, and it had this
effect on us: for we now laughed at the law, and despised its punishments, which
we found were to be escaped even against positive evidence. We imagined the late
example was rather a warning to the accuser than the criminal, and accordingly
proceeded in the most impudent and flagitious manner.«
    »Among other robberies, one night, being admitted by the servants into the
house of an opulent priest, my mother took an opportunity, whilst the servants
were dancing to my tunes, to convey away a silver vessel; this she did without
the least sacrilegious intention; but it seems the cup, which was a pretty large
one, was dedicated to holy uses, and only borrowed by the priest on an
entertainment which he made for some of his brethren. We were immediately
pursued upon this robbery (the cup being taken in our possession), and carried
before the same magistrate, who had before behaved to us with so much
gentleness: but his countenance was now changed, for the moment the priest
appeared against us, his severity was as remarkable as his candour had been
before, and we were both ordered to be stript and whipt through the streets.«
    »This sentence was executed with great severity, the priest himself
attending and encouraging the executioner, which he said he did for the good of
our souls; but, though our backs were both flead, neither my mother's torments
nor my own afflicted me so much as the indignity offered to my poor fiddle,
which was carried in triumph before me, and treated with a contempt by the
multitude, intimating a great scorn for the science I had the honour to profess;
which, as it is one of the noblest inventions of men, and as I had been always
in the highest degree proud of my excellence in it, I suffered so much from the
ill-treatment my fiddle received, that I would have given all my remainder of
skin to have preserved it from this affront.«
    »My mother survived the whipping a very short time; and I was now reduced to
great distress and misery, till a young Roman of considerable rank took a fancy
to me, received me into his family, and conversed with me in the utmost
familiarity. He had a violent attachment to music, and
