The next day my father also departed, leaving me with the woman, telling me before he went that she would teach me some things which it behoved me to know.

I remained with her in the cottage upwards of a week; several of those who had been there coming and going.

The woman, after making me take an oath to be faithful, told me that the people whom I had seen were a gang who got their livelihood by passing forged notes, and that my father was a principal man amongst them, adding, that I must do my best to assist them.

I was a poor ignorant child at that time, and I made no objection, thinking that whatever my father did must be right; the woman then gave me some instructions in the smasher's dialect of the Latin language.

I made great progress, because, for the first time in my life, I paid great attention to my lessons.