unto them, mine eye looked over and beyond them to the Lord, who I
saw was the author thereof and prime agent therein, and with a
thankful heart I returned thanksgivings and praises to Him. And
this great goodness of the Lord to me I thus record, to the end that
all into whose hands this may come may be encouraged to trust in the
Lord, whose mercy is over all His works, and who is indeed a God
near at hand, to help in the needful time.

Now I durst venture myself into the club to which I had been
invited, and accordingly, having by this time gained an acquaintance
with them, took an opportunity to cast myself among them; and
thenceforward, so long as we continued prisoners there together, I
was one of their mess.

And now the chief thing I wanted was employment, which scarce any
wanted but myself; for the rest of my company were generally
tradesmen of such trades as could set themselves on work. Of these,
divers were tailors, some masters, some journeymen, and with these I
most inclined to settle. But because I was too much a novice in
their art to be trusted with their work, lest I should spoil the
garments, I got work from an hosier in Cheapside, which was to make
night-waistcoats, of red and yellow flannel, for women and children.
And with this I entered myself among the tailors, sitting cross-
legged as they did, and so spent those leisure hours with innocency
and pleasure which want of business would have made tedious. And
indeed that was in a manner the only advantage I had by it; for my
master, though a very wealthy man, and one who professed not only
friendship but particular kindness to me, dealt I thought but hardly
with me. For though he knew not what I had to subsist by, he never
offered me a penny for my work till I had done working for him, and