 to
the highest Degree.
    At length he tells all this Story to his Mother, and sets her upon me to get
it out of me, and she us'd her utmost Skill indeed; but I put her to a full stop
at once, by telling her that the Mystery of the whole Matter lay in herself;
that it was my Respect to her had made me conceal it, and that, in short, I
could go no farther, and therefore conjur'd her not to insist upon it.
    She was struck dumb at this Suggestion, and could not tell what to say or to
think; but laying aside the Supposition as a Policy of mine, continued her
Importunity on account of her Son, and if possible, to make up the Breach
between us two; as to that, I told her, that it was indeed a good Design in her,
but that it was impossible to be done; and that if I should reveal to her the
Truth of what she desir'd, she would grant it to be impossible, and cease to
desire it: At last I seem'd to be prevail'd on by her Importunity, and told her
I dare trust her with a Secret of the greatest Importance, and she would soon
see that this was so, and that I would consent to lodge it in her Breast, if she
would engage solemnly not to acquaint her Son with it without my Consent.
    She was long in promising this Part, but rather than not come at the main
Secret she agreed to that too, and after a great many other Preliminaries, I
began and told her the whole Story: First I told her how much she was concern'd
in all the unhappy Breach which had happen'd between her Son and me, by telling
me her own Story, and her London Name; and that the Surprize she see I was in,
was upon that Occasion: Then I told her my own Story, and my Name, and assur'd
her by such other Tokens, as she could not deny, that I was no other, nor more
or less than her own Child, her Daughter born of her Body in Newgate; the same
that had sav'd her from the Gallows by being in her Belly, and that she left in
such and such Hands when she was Transported.
    It is impossible to express the Astonishment she was in; she was not
inclin'd to believe the Story, or to remember the Particulars; for she
immediately foresaw the Confusion that must follow in the Family upon it; but
