Note 639 — Chapter XL · CRIME.
Reading edition
When one Dick Hughes, a housebreaker, was in 1709 going to execution,[639] 'his wife met him at Saint Giles's Pound, where, the Cart stopping, she stept up to him, and whispering in his Ear, said, My dear, who must find the Rope that's to hang you, We or the Sheriff? Her husband reply'd, The Sheriff, Honey; for who's obliged to find him Tools to do his Work? Ah! (reply'd his Wife) I wish I had known so much before, 'twould have sav'd me two Pence, for I have been and bought one already. Well, well, (said Dick again) perhaps it mayn't be lost, for it may serve a second Husband. Yes (quoth his Wife) if I've any Luck in good Husbands, so it may.'