Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/84

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
76
Memoirs of

ſome did, and which was generally of good Linen; I ſay, it was reported, that the Buriers were ſo wicked as to ſtrip them in the Cart, and carry them quite naked to the Ground: But as I can not eaſily credit any thing ſo vile among Chriſtians, and at a Time ſo fill'd with Terrors, as that was, I can only relate it and leave it undetermined.

Innumerable Stories alſo went about of the cruel Behaviours and Practiſes of Nurſes, who tended the Sick, and of their haſtening on the Fate of thoſe they tended in their Sickneſs: But I ſhall ſay more of this in its Place.

I was indeed ſhock'd with this Sight, it almoſt overwhelm'd me, and I went away with my Heart moſt afflicted and full of the afficting Thoughts, ſuch as I cannot deſcribe; juſt at my going out of the Church, and turning up the Street towards my own Houſe, I ſaw another Cart with Links, and a Bellman going before, coming out of Harrow-Alley, in the Butcher-Row, on the other Side of the Way, and being, as I perceived, very full of dead Bodies, it went directly over the Street alſo toward the Church: I ſtood a while, but I had no Stomach to go back again to ſee the ſame diſmal Scene over again, ſo I went directly Home, where I could not but conſider with Thankfulneſs, the Riſque I had run, believing I had gotten no Injury; as indeed I had not.

Here the poor unhappy Gentleman's Grief came into my head again, and indeed I could not but ſhed Tears in the Reflection upon it, perhaps more than he did himſelf; but his Caſe lay ſo heavy upon my Mind, that I could not prevail with my ſelf, but that I muſt go out again into the Street, and go to the Pye-Tavern, reſolving to enquire what became of him.

It was by this Time one a-Clock in the Morning, and yet the poor Gentleman was there; theTruth