Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/34

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
26
Memoirs of

were ſo Enthuſiaſtically bold, as to run about the Streets, with their Oral Predictions, pretending they were ſent to preach to the City; and One in particular, who, like Jonah to Nenevah, cry'd in the Streets, yet forty Days, and LONDON ſhall be deſtroy'd, I will not be poſitive, whether he ſaid yet forty Days, or yet a few Days. Another run about Naked, except a pair of Drawers about his Waſte, crying Day and Night; like a Man that Joſephus mentions, who cry'd, woe to Jeruſalem! a little before the Deſtruction of that City: So this poor naked Creature cry'd, O! the Great, and the Dreadful God! and ſaid no more, but repeated thoſe Words continually, with a Voice and Countenance full of horror, a ſwift Pace, and no Body cou'd ever find him to ſtop, or reſt, or take any Suſtenance, at leaſt, that ever I cou'd hear of. I met this poor Creature ſeveral Times in the Streets, and would have ſpoke to him, but he would not enter into Speech with me, or any one elſe; but held on his diſmal Cries continually.

Theſe Things terrified the People to the laſt Degree; and eſpecially when two or three Times, as I have mentioned already, they found one or two in the Bills, dead of the Plague at St. Giles.

Next to theſe publick Things, were the Dreams of old Women: Or, I ſhould ſay, the Interpretation of old Women upon other Peoples Dreams; and theſe put abundance of People even out of their Wits: Some heard Voices warning them to be gone, for that there would be ſuch a Plague in London, ſo that the Living would not be able to bury the Dead: Others ſaw Apparitions in the Air; and I muſt be allow'd to ſay of both, I hope with out breach of Charity, that they heard Voices that never ſpake, and ſaw Sights that never appear'd; but the Imagination of the Peoplewas