DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70267#0353
JOHN HATFIELD; THE SWINDLER, &C. 315
a few hundreds he decamped, leaving his second wife in
Devonshire with a young infant, and pregnant with an-
other, dependent on the charity of the world. The clergy-
man who had accepted his drafts, was obliged to fly his
duty and his country, to save, himself from a prison, and
Hatfield was instantly made a bankrupt, to screen himself
from his own villainies.
While in London he sported a cream-coloured charger,
by which he was then very conspicuous as a public cha-
racter. At this juncture also, he met an old friend and
school-fellow, and acting from his usual habits, after
shaking him by the hand, seemed to avail himself of the
opportunity to assure him, how happy he was to have it
in his power to serve him. He accordingly called on him
a day or two after, when his friend being a silver-smith,
he ordered silver spoons of him to the amount of T40, for
which he never paid, nor ever after saw him more.
But the event which gave die greatest eclat to his name,
was in consequence of his visiting Keswick in Cumber-
land, on a fishing party, in August 1S02.—This he under-
took in his own carriage, but without any servants ; and
then book up his abode at the house of old Mr. Robinson,
the father of Mary of Buttermere, who kept a small ale-
house at the foot of the small Lake.—Here he called him-
self the Hon. A. A. Hope, Member for Dumfries, and
first paid his addresses to Miss D-, a young lady of
fortune, from Ireland, ■who was there at the same time.—
He had even obtained her consent, and gone so far as to
buy the wedding clothes.—However, a friend that was in
the interest of the lady, as it will appear in the sequel,
happily prevented this union.—Fortunately for her, the
marriage day was not fixed ; for, previously to its being
fixed, she had persisted, in insisting, “ that the pretended
Colonel Hope should introduce the subject formally to a
gentleman her friend.” He was hourly expected to do so,
and
a few hundreds he decamped, leaving his second wife in
Devonshire with a young infant, and pregnant with an-
other, dependent on the charity of the world. The clergy-
man who had accepted his drafts, was obliged to fly his
duty and his country, to save, himself from a prison, and
Hatfield was instantly made a bankrupt, to screen himself
from his own villainies.
While in London he sported a cream-coloured charger,
by which he was then very conspicuous as a public cha-
racter. At this juncture also, he met an old friend and
school-fellow, and acting from his usual habits, after
shaking him by the hand, seemed to avail himself of the
opportunity to assure him, how happy he was to have it
in his power to serve him. He accordingly called on him
a day or two after, when his friend being a silver-smith,
he ordered silver spoons of him to the amount of T40, for
which he never paid, nor ever after saw him more.
But the event which gave die greatest eclat to his name,
was in consequence of his visiting Keswick in Cumber-
land, on a fishing party, in August 1S02.—This he under-
took in his own carriage, but without any servants ; and
then book up his abode at the house of old Mr. Robinson,
the father of Mary of Buttermere, who kept a small ale-
house at the foot of the small Lake.—Here he called him-
self the Hon. A. A. Hope, Member for Dumfries, and
first paid his addresses to Miss D-, a young lady of
fortune, from Ireland, ■who was there at the same time.—
He had even obtained her consent, and gone so far as to
buy the wedding clothes.—However, a friend that was in
the interest of the lady, as it will appear in the sequel,
happily prevented this union.—Fortunately for her, the
marriage day was not fixed ; for, previously to its being
fixed, she had persisted, in insisting, “ that the pretended
Colonel Hope should introduce the subject formally to a
gentleman her friend.” He was hourly expected to do so,
and