'
Shall I own to you, that this portrait, drawn by a ruffian,
heightened by what I myself had observed in his deportment, has
interested me warmly in the fate of poor Martin, whom nature
seems to have intended for a useful and honourable member of that
community upon which he now preys for subsistence? It seems, he
lived some time as a clerk to a timber-merchant, whose daughter
Martin having privately married, was discarded, and his wife
turned out of doors. She did not long survive her marriage; and
Martin, turning fortune-hunter, could not supply his occasions
any other way, than by taking to the road, in which he has
travelled hitherto with uncommon success. -- He pays his respects
regularly to Mr Justice Buzzard, the thief-catcher-general of
this metropolis, and sometimes they smoke a pipe together very
lovingly, when the conversation generally turns upon the nature
of evidence. -- The justice has given him fair warning to take care
of himself, and he has received his caution in good part. --
Hitherto he has baffled all the vigilance, art, and activity of
Buzzard and his emissaries, with such conduct as would have done
honour to the genius of a Caesar or a Turenne; but he has one
weakness, which has proved fatal to all the heroes of his tribe,
namely, an indiscreet devotion to the fair sex, and in all
probability, he will be attacked on this defenceless quarter.
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