The Sign of the Red Cross: A Tale of Old London

by Evelyn Everett-Green

  CHAPTER III. DRAWING NEARER.

  "Brother Reuben, I cannot think what can be the reason, but my LadyScrope has bidden me beg of thee to give her speech upon themorrow. All this day she has been in a mighty pleasant humour: shegave me this silken neckerchief when I left today, and bid me bringmy brother with me on the morrow--and she means thee, Reuben."

  "What can be the meaning of that?" asked Rachel Harmer, with a lookof curiosity. "Doth she often speak to thee of thy kindred, child?"

  "If the whim be on her, and she has naught else to amuse her, shewill bid me tell of the life at home, and of our neighbours andfriends," answered Dorcas. "But never has she spoke as she didtoday. Nor can I guess why she would have speech with Reuben."

  "I can guess shrewdly at that," said the young man. "It so befellthis morning that I found a party of roisterers at her door, who weremarking it with a red cross, as though it were a plague-strickenhouse--as the Magistrates talk of marking them now if the distemperspreads much further and wider. The bold lady had herself put thesefellows to the rout by pouring pitch upon them from a window above;but I stopped to rebuke the foremost of them myself, and to erasetheir handiwork from the door. I did not know that I was either seenor known; but methinks my Lady Scrope has eyes in the back of herhead, as the saying goes."

  "You may well say that!" cried Dorcas, with a laugh and a shrug."Never was there such a woman for knowing everything and everybody.But she spoke not to me of any roisterers. Would I had been thereto see her pouring her filthy compound over them! She always has itready. How she must have rejoiced to find a use for it at last!"

  "It is an evil and a scurvy jest at such a time to mock at theperil which is at our very doors, and which naught but the mercy ofGod can avert from us," said the master of the house, very gravely.

  Then, looking round upon his assembled household, he added in thesame very serious way, "I have been this day into the heart of thecity. I have spoken with many of the authorities there. The LordMayor and the Magistrates are in great anxiety, and I fear me therecan be no longer any doubt that the distemper is spreadingfearfully. It has not yet appeared within the city nor upon theother side of the river; but in the western parishes it isspreading every way, and they say that all who are able are fleeingaway from their houses. Perchance for those who can do so this maybe the safest thing to do. But soon they will not be permitted toleave, unless they have a bill of health from the Lord Mayor, as inthe country beyond the honest folks are taking alarm, and arecrying out that we are like to spread the plague all over thekingdom."

  "I, too, have heard sad tales of the mortality," said Dinah,raising her calm voice and speaking very seriously. "I met a goodphysician, under whom I often laboured amongst the sick, and hetells me that there be poor stricken wretches from whom all theworld flee in terror the moment it appears they have the distemperupon them. Many have died already untended and uncared for, whilstothers have in the madness of the fever and pain burst out of therooms in which they have been shut up, and have run up and down thestreets, spreading terror in their path, till they have droppeddown dead or dying, to be carried to graveyard or pest house as thecase may be. But who can tell how many other victims such amiserable creature may not have infected first?"

  "Ay, that is the terror of it," said Harmer. "All are saying thatnurses must be found to care for the sick, and many are veryresolved that the houses where the distemper is found should bestraitly shut up and guarded by watchmen, that none go forth. It isa hard thing for the whole to be thus shut in with the infected;but as men truly say, how shall the whole city escape if somethingbe not done to restrain the people from passing to and fro, andspreading the distemper everywhere?"

  "I have thought," said Dinah, very quietly, "that it may be givento me to offer myself as a nurse for these poor persons. I havepassed unscathed through many perils before now. Once I verilybelieve I was with one who died even of this distemper, albeit thephysician called it the spotted fever, which frights men less thanthe name of plague. There be many herbs and simples and decoctionswhich men say are of great value in keeping the infection at bay.And even were it not so, we must not be thinking only at such timesof saving our own lives. There be some that must be ready to riskeven life, if they may serve their brethren. The good physiciansare prepared to do this, to say nothing of the Magistrates andthose who have the management of this great city at such a time.And it seems to me that women must always be ready to tend the sickeven in times of peril. I seem to hear a call that bids me offermyself for this work; but none else shall suffer through me. If Igo, I return hither no more. I shall live amongst the sick untilthis judgment be overpast, or until I myself be called hence, asmay well be."

  All faces were grave and full of awe. Yet perhaps none who knewDinah were overmuch surprised at her words. Her life had been livedamongst the sick for many years. She had never shrunk from danger,or had spared herself when the need was pressing. Her sisterRachel, although the tears stood in her eyes, said nothing todissuade her.

  Nor indeed was there much time for discussion then, for the MasterBuilder looked in at that moment with a face full of concern. Hebrought the news that fresh revelations were being hourly made asto the terrible rapidity with which the plague was spreading in theparishes without the walls; and he added that even the gay andgiddy Court had been at last alarmed, and that the King had beenheard to say he should quit Whitehall and retire with his Court andhis minions to Oxford in the course of a week or a fortnight,unless matters became speedily much better.

  "Ay, that is ever the way," said Harmer, sternly. "The recklessmonarch and his licentious Court draw down upon the city the wrathof God in judgment of their wickedness, and those who have provokedthe judgment flee from the peril, leaving the poor of the city toperish like sheep."

  "Well, well, well; fine folks like change, and it is easy for themto go elsewhere. I would do the same, perchance, were I so placed,"said the Master Builder; "but we men of business must stick to ourwork as long as it sticks to us.

  "What about your mistress, Lady Scrope, Dorcas? Has she said aughtof leaving London? She is one who could easily fly. Not but what Itrust the distemper will be kept well out of the city by the caretaken."

  "She has spoken no word of any such thing," answered Dorcas. "Shereads and hears all that is spoken about the plague, and makes myblood run cold by the stories she tells of it in other lands, andduring other outbreaks which she can remember. Methinks sometimesthe very hair on my head is standing up in the affright her wordsbring me. But she only laughs and mocks, and calls me a littlepoltroon. I trow that she would never fly; it would not be likeher."

  "Men and women do many things unlike themselves in stress ofparticular and deadly peril," said the Master Builder. "Lady Scropewould do well to consider leaving whilst the city has so good abill of health; it may be less easy by-and-by, should the distemperspread."

  "Thou canst speak to her of this thing, Reuben, when thou dost seeher on the morrow," observed his father. "Perchance she has notconsidered the peril of being detained if she puts off flight toolong."

  Reuben said he would name the matter to the lady; and when Dorcasset forth upon the morrow for her daily walk, her brotheraccompanied her, and told her in confidence what he had not told tohis family--how Frederick Mason had been served by the irate oldlady, and what a sorry spectacle he had presented afterwards.

  Dorcas laughed heartily at the story. She had no love forFrederick, and she told her brother that she suspected he had beenthe half-tipsy gallant who had striven to kiss her in the streets,and had partially succeeded. This put Reuben into a great wrath,and he promised whenever he could do so to come and escort hissister home from the house in Allhallowes. True, the distance wasbut very short, yet the lane to the bridge head was lonely andnarrow, and Frederick was known for a most ill-conditioned youngman.

  Lady Scrope received Reuben in a demi-toilet of a peculiar kind,and a very strange and wizened object did she appear. She thankedhim for the rebu
ke she had heard him administer to the roisterer,enjoyed a hearty laugh over his wretched appearance, and thenproceeded to indulge her insatiable taste for gossip by demandingof him all the city news, and what all the world there was talkingabout.

  "Since this plague bogey has got into men's minds I see nobody andhear nothing," she said. "All the fools be flying the place like somany silly sheep; or, if they come to sit awhile, their talk is allof pills and decoctions, refuses and ointments. Bah! they will buythe drugs of every foolish quack who goes about the streets sellingplague cures, and then fly off the next day, thinking that theywill be the next victim. Bah! the folly of the men! How glad I amthat I am a woman."

  "Still, madam," said Reuben, taking his cue, "there be many nobleladies who think it well to remove themselves for a time from thisinfected city. Not that for the time being the city itself isinfected, and we hope to keep it free--"

  "Then men are worse fools than I take them for," was the sharpretort. "Keep the plague out of the city! Bah! what nonsense willthey talk next! Is it not written in the very heavens that the cityis to be destroyed? Heed not their idle prognostications. I tellyou, young man, that the plague is already amongst us, even thoughmen know it not. In a few more weeks half the houses in the verycity itself will be shut up, and grass will be growing in thestreets. We may be thankful if there are enough living to bury thedead. Keep it out of the city, forsooth! Let them do it if theycan; I know better!"

  Dorcas paled and shrank, fully convinced that her redoubtablemistress possessed a familiar spirit who revealed to her the thingsthat were coming; but Reuben fancied that the old lady was butguessing, and he saw no reason to be afraid at her words. Sayingsuch things would not bring them to pass.

  "Then, madam," he answered, "if such be the case, would it not bewell to consider whether you do not remove yourself ere thesethings comne to pass? Pardon me if I seem to take it upon mnyselfto advise you, but I was charged by my father, who is like to beappointed for a time one of the examiners of health whom the Mayorand Magistrates think it well to institute at this time, that soonit may not be so easy to get away from the city as it is now;wherefore it behoves the sound whilst they are yet sound to bethinkthem whether or not they will take themselves away elsewhere. Alsomy mother wished me to ask the question of your ladyship, forasmuchas she would like to know whether my sister in such case would berequired to accompany you."

  Lady Scrope nodded her head several times, an odd light of mockerygleaming in her keen black eyes.

  "Tell your worthy father, good youth, that I thank him for his goodcounsel; but also tell him that nothing will drive me from thisplace--not even though I be the only one left alive in the city.Here I was born, and here I mean to die; and whether death comes bythe plague or by some other messenger what care I? I tell thee,lad, I am far safer here than gadding about the country. Here I canshut myself up at pleasure from all the world. Abroad, I am at themuercy of any plague-stricken vagabond who comes to ask an alms.Let all sensible folks stay at home and shut themselves up, and letthe fools go gadding here, there, and all over. As for Dorcas, lether come and go as long as she safely may; but if your good motherwould keep her at home, then let her abide there, and return to mewhen the peril is overpast. I like the wench, and if she likes toabide altogether with me she may do so. Let her mother choose."

  Dorcas, however, had no wish to live in that lonely housealtogether, and for the present there was no reason why she shouldnot go backwards and forwards to her father's abode. Her parentswere grateful to Lady Scrope for her offer, but for the presentthere was no reason for making any change.

  The weather during these bright days of May had been cool andfresh, and in spite of all evil auguries, sanguine persons hadtried hard to believe and to make others believe that the peril ofa visitation of the plague had been somewhat overrated. Yet thechoked thoroughfares leading out of London gave the lie to thesesuppositions, and for many weeks the bridge was a sight in itself,crowded with carriages and waggons all filled with the richer folksand their goods, hastening to the pleasant regions of Surrey toforget their fears and escape the pestilential atmosphere of thecity.

  Then towards the end of the month a great heat set in, and at once,as it were, the infection broke out in a hundred different andunsuspected places, not only without but within the city walls. Howthe distemper had so spread none then dared to guess. It seemedeverywhere at once, none knew why or how. Doubtless it was ininnumerable instances the tainted condition of the wells from whichthe bulk of the people still drew their water; but men did notthink of these things long ago. They looked each other in the facein fear and terror, none knowing but that his neighbour in thestreet might be carrying about with him the seeds of the dreaddistemper.

  It now behoved all careful citizens to bethink them well what theywould do, with the fearful foe knocking as it were at their verydoors, and the matter was brought home right early to the Harmerhousehold, by a thing that befell them at the very outset of theaccess of hot weather which told so fatally upon the city almostimumediately afterwards.

  Rachel Harmer was awakened from sleep one night by the sound ofsomething rattling upon the bed-chamber floor, as though it hadfallen from the open casement, and as she came to her wakingsenses, she heard a voice without calling in urgent accents:

  "Mother! mother! mother!"

  Rising in some alarm, she went to the window which projected overthe lower stories of the house, as was usual at that time, and onputting out her head she beheld a female figure standing in theroadway below. When the moonlight fell upon the upturned face, shesaw it was that of her daughter Janet, who was in the service ofLady Howe, and was her waiting maid, living in her house not farfrom Whitehall, and earning good wages in that gay household.

  In no little alarm at seeing her daughter out alone in the streetat night, she spoke her name and bid her wait at the door till shecould let her in, which she would do immediately; but Janetinstantly replied:

  "Nay, mother, come not to the door; come to the little window atthe corner, where I can speak quietly till I have told you all.Open not the door till you have heard my lamentable tale. I knownot even now that I am right to come hither at all."

  In great fear and anxiety the mother cast a loose wrapper abouther, and descended quickly to the little storeroom close againstthe shop, where there was a tiny window which opened direct uponthe street. At this window, but a few paces away, she found herdaughter awaiting her, and by the light of the rush candle that shecarried she saw that the girl's face was deadly white.

  "Child, child, what ails thee? Come in and tell me all. Thou mustnot stand out there. I will open the door and fetch thee in."

  "No, mother, no--not till thou hast heard my tale," pleaded Janet;"for the sake of the rest thou must be cautious. Mother, I havebeen with one who died of the plague at noon today!"

  "Mercy on us, child! How came that about?"

  "It was my fellow servant and bed fellow," answered Janet. "We werelike sisters together, and if ever I ailed aught she tended me asfondly as thou couldst thyself, mother. Today, when we rose, shecomplained of headache and a feeling of illness; but we went downand took our breakfast below with the rest. At least I took mine asusual, though she did but toy with her food. Then all of a suddenshe put her hand to her side and turned ghastly white, and fell offher chair. A scullery wench set up a cry, 'The plague! the plague!'and forthwith they all fled this way and that--all save me, whocould not leave her thus. I made her swallow some hot cordial whichI think they call alexiteric water, and which is said to be verybeneficial in cases of the distemper; and she was able to crawlupstairs after a while to her bed once more, where I put her. Iknew not for some hours what was passing in the house, though Iheard a great commotion there, and presently there stole in amincing physician who attends my lady, holding a handkerchiefsteeped in vinegar to his nose, and smelling like an apothecary'sshop. He looked at poor Patience, who lay in a stupor, heedingnone, and he directed me to uncover her neck for him to
see if shehad the tokens upon her. There had been none when I put her to bedagain, so that I had hoped it was but a colic or some suchaffection; but, alas, when I looked at his direction, there werethe black swellings plainly to be seen. Forthwith he fled withindecent haste, and only stopped to say he would send a nurse andsuch remedies as should be needful."

  "O my child! and thou wast with her all the time!--thou didst eventouch and handle her?"

  "Mother, I could not leave her alone to die. And hardly had thedoctor gone than the fever came upon her, and it was all I could doto keep her from rushing out of the room in her pain. But it lastedonly a brief while--for the poison must have gotten a sore hold onher--and just after noon she fell back in mine arms and died.

  "O mother, I see her face now--so livid and terrible to look upon!O mother, mother, shall I too look like that when my turn comes todie?"

  "Hush, hush, my child! God is very merciful. It may be His goodpleasure to spare thee. Thy aunt doth go to and fro amongst thesmitten ones, and she is yet in her wonted health. But ere I callthy father and ask counsel what we are to do, tell me the rest ofthy tale. Who came to thy relief? and how camest thou hither solate?"

  "I could not come before. I dared not go forth by day, lest I boreabout the seeds of the distemper. The nurse came at three o'clock,and finding her patient already dead, wrapped her in a sheet, andsaid that a coffin would be sent at dark, and that the bearerswould fetch her for burying when the cart came round, and that whenI heard the bell ring I must call to them from the window and letthem in. I asked why the porter should not do that, but she told methat already every person in the house had fled. My lady had falleninto an awful fright on hearing that one of her servants wassmitten, and before any knowledge could have been received of it bythe authorities, she had applied for and obtained a clean bill forherself and her household, and every one of them had fled. Thehouse was empty, save for me and the poor dead girl; and I wasbidden to stay till her corpse was removed, for the nurse said shewas wanted in a dozen places at once, and that she had too much todo with the sick to attend upon the dead."

  "And thou wert willing to wait?"

  "I could not leave her alone. Besides, I feared to walk the streetstill night. The nurse bid me not linger after the body was taken,for no man knows when the houses will be shut up, so that none cango forth who have been with an infected person. But it is not sodone yet, and I was free. But I dared not come home amongst you allto bring, perhaps, death with me. I waited in the house till themen and the cart came, and they brought a coffin and took poorPatience away. They told me then that soon there would be no morecoffins, and that they would have to bury without them."

  Janet paused and shuddered strongly.

  "O mother, mother, mother!" she wailed, "what shall I do? What willbecome of me? Shall I have to die in the streets, or to go to thepest house? Oh, why do such terrible things befall us?"

  The mother was weeping now, but the next moment she felt the touchof her husband's hand upon her shoulder, and his voice said in itsquiet and authoritative way:

  "What means all this coil and to do? Why does the child speak thus?Tell me all; I must hear the tale.

  "Janet, my girl, never ask the why and the wherefore of any of theLord's just judgments. It is for us to bow our heads in repentanceand submission, trusting that He will never try us above what weare able to bear."

  Comforted by the sound of her father's voice, Janet repeated hertale to him in much the same words as before, the father listeningin thoughtful silence, without comment or question; till at theconclusion of the tale he said to his wife:

  "Go upstairs and bring down with thee my heavy riding cloak whichhangs in the press;" and when she had obeyed him, he added, "Now goup to thy room, and shut thyself in till I call thee thence."

  Implicit obedience to her husband was one of Rachel'scharacteristics. Although she longed to know what was to be done,she asked no questions, but retired upstairs and fell on her kneesin prayer. The master of the house went to a great cask of vinegarwhich stood in the corner, and after pretty well saturating theheavy cloak in that pungent liquid, he unbarred the door, andbeckoning to his daughter to approach, threw about her the heavymantle and bid mer follow him.

  He led her through the house and up to a large spare guest chamber,rather away from the other sleeping chambers of the house, and hequickly brought to her there a bath and hot water, and certainherbs specially prepared--wormwood, woodsorrel, angelica, and soforth. He bid her wash herself all over in the herb bath, wrappingall her clothing first in the cloak, which she was to put outsidethe door. Then she was to go to bed, whilst all her clothing wasburnt by his own hands; and after that she must submit to remainshut up in that room, seeing nobody but himself, until such timeshould have gone by as should prove whether or not she had becomeinfected by the distemper.

  Janet wept for joy at being thus received beneath her father'sroof, having heard so many fearsome tales of persons being turnedout of doors even by their nearest and dearest, were it butsuspected that they might carry about with them the seeds of thedreaded distemper. But the worthy lace maker was a godly man, andbrave with the courage that comes of a lively faith. He had learnedall that could be told of the nature of the distemper; and after hehad burnt all his daughter's clothing with his own hands, and hadassured himself that she felt sound and well, and had alsofumigated his own house thoroughly, he felt that he had done all inhis power against the infection, and that the rest must be left inthe hands of Providence.

  The mother hovered anxiously about, but came not near her husbandtill permitted by him. She did not enter the room where herdaughter now lay comfortably in a soft bed, but she prepared somegood food for her, which was carried in by the father later on, andpromised her that by the morning she should have clothing to puton, and that she should have every care and comfort during the daysof her captivity.

  Janet thanked God from the very bottom of her heart that night forhaving given to her such good and kindly parents, and earnestlybesought that she might be spared, not only for her own unworthysake, but for their sakes who had risked so much rather than thatshe should be an outcast from home at such a time of peril and horror.