her; and two Servants which he kept fled both from her. He ran from Houſe to Houſe like one diſtracted, but cou’d get no help; the utmoſt he could get was, that a Watchman who attended at an infected Houle ſhut up, promis’d to ſend a Nurſe in the Morning: The poor Man with his Heart broke, went back, aſſiſted his Wife what he con’d, acted the part of the Midwife; brought the Child dead into the World; and his Wife in about an Hour dy’d in his Arms, where he held her dead Body faſt till the Morning, when the Watchman came and brought the Nurſe as he had promiſed; and coming up the Stairs, for he had left the Door open, or only latched: They found the Man fitting with his dead Wife in his Arms; and ſo overwhelmed with Grief, that he dy’d in a few Hours after, without any Sign of the Infection upon him, but meerly ſunk under the Weight of his Grief.
I have heard alſo of ſome, who on the Death of their Relations, have grown ſtupid with the inſupportable Sorrow, and of one in particular, who was ſo abſolutely overcome with the Preſſure upon his Spirits, that by Degrees, his Head ſunk into his Body, ſo between his Shoulders, that the Crown of his Head was very little ſeen above the Bones of his Shoulders; and by Degrees, loſeing both Voice and Senſe, his Face looking forward, lay againſt his Collar-Bone, and con’d not be kept up any otherwiſe, unleſs held up by the Hands of other People; and the poor Man never came to himſelf again, but languiſhed near a Year in that Condition and died: Nor was he ever once ſeen to life up his Eyes, or to look upon any particular Object.
I cannot undertake to give any other than a Summary of ſuch Paſſages as theſe, becauſe it was not poſſible to come at the Particulars, where ſometimes the whole Families, where ſuch Things happen’d, were carry’d off by the Diſtemper: But there were innumerable Caſes of this Kind, which preſented to
