full-bottomed periwig that cost him sixty pounds,* with high red
heels to his shoes, a silver sword, and a gold snuff-box, and a
large wound (obtained, he said, at the siege of Barcelona), which
disfigured much of his countenance, and caused him to cover one eye,
was in small danger, he thought, of being mistaken for Corporal
Brock, the deserter of Cutts's; and strutted along the Mall with as
grave an air as the very best nobleman who appeared there. He was
generally, indeed, voted to be very good company; and as his
expenses were unlimited ("A few convent candlesticks," my dear, he
used to whisper, "melt into a vast number of doubloons"), he
commanded as good society as he chose to ask for: and it was
speedily known as a fact throughout town, that Captain Wood, who had
served under His Majesty Charles III. of Spain, had carried off the
diamond petticoat of Our Lady of Compostella, and lived upon the
proceeds of the fraud. People were good Protestants in those days,
and many a one longed to have been his partner in the pious plunder.

* In the ingenious contemporary history of Moll Flanders, a periwig
is mentioned as costing that sum.

All surmises concerning his wealth, Captain Wood, with much
discretion, encouraged. He contradicted no report, but was quite
ready to confirm all; and when two different rumours were positively
put to him, he used only to laugh, and say, "My dear sir, _I_ don't
make the stories; but I'm not called upon to deny them; and I give
you fair warning, that I shall assent to every one of them; so you
may believe them or not, as you please." And so he had the
reputation of being a gentleman, not only wealthy, but discreet. In
truth, it was almost a pity that worthy Brock had not been a
gentleman born; in which case, doubtless, he would have lived and