I then repeated my desire, and produced my passports, by which he learned who I was. I, who am naturally civil where I am civilly used, and saucy enough where I think myself treated with disregard, was very much piqued at their insolent and unmannerly behaviour, and began to reply to the impertinent questions very abruptly so that a very tart dialogue would have ensued, had not the conversation been interrupted by a tall, thin, genteel young French nobleman, an officer in the army, who, chancing to come in, asked with great politeness, what I would please to have. The same allowance had I prevailed upon Lord B�?to grant to another maid, who attended me while I lived in his house. I was supplied with money for my journey by my good friend L�? and, after a short and pleasant passage, arrived at the Hague, where I stayed two months, and parted with S�? on whom I settled an annuity of five-and-twenty pounds, payable out of the provision which I had or might obtain from my husband.
We were afterwards informed at a small village, that there was actually a large gang of deserters, who harboured in that wood, from which they made excursions in the neighbourhood, and kept the peasants in continual alarms. And, indeed, the robbers took the only half-hour in which they could have had an opportunity of plundering us for we no sooner returned into the highway, than we met with the French artillery coming from Brussels, which was a security to us during the rest of our journey. This misfortune I suffered by the misinformation I received at Antwerp, where I would have provided myself with an escort, had not I been assured that there was not the least occasion to put myself to such extraordinary expense.