Daniel Defoe

“ There was a Dutch merchant in Paris that was a person of great reputation for a man of substance and of honesty, but I had no manner of acquaintance with him, nor did I know how to get acquainted with him so as to discover my circumstances to him ”

“ His design is to have you carried to the Châtelet, that the suspicion may appear just, and then to get the jewels out of your hands if possible, then at last to drop the prosecution on your consenting to quit the jewels to him; and how you will do to avoid this is the question which I would have you consider of.”
“My misfortune, sir,” said I, “is that I have no time to consider, and I have no person to consider with or advise about it. I find that innocence may be oppressed by such an impudent fellow as this; he that does not value a perjury has any man’s life at his mercy. ”

“ He dealt very candidly with me, but advised me, when he knew my case so particularly, to take bills upon Amsterdam and to go that way to England; for that I might lodge my treasure in the bank there in the most secure manner in the world, and that there he could recommend me to a man who perfectly understood jewels and would deal faithfully with me in the disposing them. ”

“ In this they agreed to go to an advocate or counsel for directions how to proceed, and to meet again the next day, against which time the merchant was to appoint me to come again with the jewels in order to sell them. “No,” says the merchant, “I will go further with her than so; I will desire her to leave the jewels with me, to show to another person, in order to get the better price for them.” ”

“ As to my money, he gave me first of all an accepted bill, payable at Rotterdam, for 4,000 pistoles, and drawn from Genoa upon a merchant at Rotterdam, payable to a merchant at Paris and endorsed by him to my merchant. This he assured me would be punctually paid, and so it was, to a day; the rest I had in other bills of exchange drawn by himself upon other merchants in Holland. Having secured my jewels too, as well as I could, he sent me away the same evening in a friend’s coach, which he had procured for me, to St. ”