A true and interesting Narrative of
# Maria Bedle,

A Young Girl of Nottingham, who was seduced by a
gentleman and taken to London. Also an account of
her Death in a house of ill-fame, with a Copy of a
Letter which she wrote to her Parents previous to
her dissolution.

It is humbly hoped that the reader after perusing this piercing narrative will be
very careful in what manner they spend their time, and think what an aw-
ful thing it is to fall into the hands of an offended God.

This unfortunate young girl was the daughter of Thomas and Jane Bedle
who were respectable people in Nottingham; when only fourteen years of age
she was admired by all who saw her beauty; she was accosted by a most aban
doned libertine, by whose fine promises she was seduced and led away to Lon
don, where she became his kept mistress, but only for a short time, for the
wicked wretch soon turned her out of doors; where she was destitute of mo-
ney and friends, with no other way of living but to walk the streets as a com-
mon prostitute, to obtain a scanty support from any disgusting object she
could fall in with. O think kind reader how many young females at this very
moment are suffering miseries like these; cast out to perish in the streets, to
lay their aching heads and weary limbs perhaps at the very door of the wretch
who occasioned their misery. This miserable life she led till she fell in with
two more hardened females, that took her away to a house of ill fame in York
Street, Berners Street, where she learned all manner of wickedness, such as
drunkenness, dancing, and card-playing on Sabbath days, acting as it were in
defiance to the Almighty. After spending years in this wicked manner, thro'
Westminster and St. Giles's, and most principal towns in this country, she was
seized with a violent fever that terminated her existence: but, Oh! most hor-
rible to relate, when brought on her death bed, both doctor and nurse were
forced to fly from the room, to see her extended in the bitter agonies of death,
foaming at the mouth in a state of distraction, saying it was too late to be for-
given, for she had hitherto denied and despised the meritorious works of God,
but now she wanted his help. In that awful state she expired on the 17th of
January, 1825. Such was the state of this hapless female,

Oh ye fair ones take warning from her fate, for how many men are there in
the world that will take every pains to gain an unsuspecting girl's affections,
by protestations of eternal regard and marraige soften her susceptible heart till
she is destroyed by him on whom her fond heart so tenderly doated.

Read these few lines, and mark them well,
At nineteen years of age I fell;
In my sad state and sorrow see,
How short on earth your days may be?
Tender virgins shun deceivers,
Who with base seducing arts,

When they find you're fond believers,
Triumph o'er unguard ed hearts,
But if a fickle swain pursue you,
Oh! beware his subtle wiles,
Alt his aim is to undo you,
Ruin lurks beneath his smiles.

The following is a Copy of her Letter to her Parents, which she sent to them
a few days previous to her dissolution.

"LONDON, JAN. 10, 1825,

"Dear Parents....Before this meets your eyes, your unfortunate Maria will
be no more, but I blush to name what has been the real cause of my early and
miserable dissolution, but it is necessary that I disclose it to you. I was en-
snared and led astray by a deceitful man, who effected my ruin and abandoned
me. Not having the means of returning, I was forced for a subsistence to wan
der the streets as a common prostitute, which by repeated pollution brought on
an incurable distemper, and that has brought me to an early grave. It is my
last request that you break my death cautiously to my beloved mother; tell
her not to regret the loss of one, who had she lived, would only have disgraced
her. O, my dear Parents, when I think of your tender care, it wounds my
very heart to think of my misconduct. Pray for me, and may the God of Hea-
ven bless and protect you. Pray advise my late companions to take warning
by my miserable fate. The few articles I have will be scarcely sufficient for
funeral expences, out I was unwilling to trouble you. So, my dear and much
injured Parents, farewell! Alas! for ever and ever, Farewell!

Your undutiful, but repentant Daughter,

MARIA BEEDLE."

Reprinted for Oliver Cromwell.