by Daniel Defoe
inthe midst of such a calamity, as to rob and steal, yet certain it isthat all sorts of villainies, and even levities and debaucheries, werethen practiced in the town as openly as ever: I will not say quite asfrequently, because the number of people were[35] many ways lessened.
But the city itself began now to be visited too, I mean within thewalls. But the number of people there were[35] indeed extremely lessenedby so great a multitude having been gone into the country; and even allthis month of July they continued to flee, though not in such multitudesas formerly. In August, indeed, they fled in such a manner, that I beganto think there would be really none but magistrates and servants left inthe city.
As they fled now out of the city, so I should observe that thecourt[36] removed early, viz., in the month of June, and went toOxford, where it pleased God to preserve them; and the distemper didnot, as I heard of, so much as touch them; for which I cannot say that Iever saw they showed any great token of thankfulness, and hardlyanything of reformation, though they did not want being told that theircrying vices might, without breach of charity, be said to have gone farin bringing that terrible judgment upon the whole nation.
The face of London was now, indeed, strangely altered: I mean the wholemass of buildings, city, liberties, suburbs, Westminster, Southwark, andaltogether; for as to the particular part called the city, or within thewalls, that was not yet much infected. But in the whole, the face ofthings, I say, was much altered. Sorrow and sadness sat upon every face,and though some part were not yet overwhelmed, yet all looked deeplyconcerned; and as we saw it apparently coming on, so every one looked onhimself and his family as in the utmost danger. Were it possible torepresent those times exactly to those that did not see them, and givethe reader due ideas of the horror that everywhere presented itself, itmust make just impressions upon their minds, and fill them withsurprise. London might well be said to be all in tears. The mourners didnot go about the streets,[37] indeed; for nobody put on black, or made aformal dress of mourning for their nearest friends: but the voice ofmourning was truly heard in the streets. The shrieks of women andchildren at the windows and doors of their houses, where their nearestrelations were perhaps dying, or just dead, were so frequent to be heardas we passed the streets, that it was enough to pierce the stoutestheart in the world to hear them. Tears and lamentations were seen almostin every house, especially in the first part of the visitation; fortowards the latter end, men's hearts were hardened, and death was soalways before their eyes that they did not so much concern themselvesfor the loss of their friends, expecting that themselves should besummoned the next hour.
Business led me out sometimes to the other end of the town, even whenthe sickness was chiefly there. And as the thing was new to me, as wellas to everybody else, it was a most surprising thing to see thosestreets, which were usually so thronged, now grown desolate, and so fewpeople to be seen in them, that if I had been a stranger, and at a lossfor my way, I might sometimes have gone the length of a whole street, Imean of the by-streets, and see[38] nobody to direct me, except watchmenset at the doors of such houses as were shut up; of which I shall speakpresently.
One day, being at that part of the town on some special business,curiosity led me to observe things more than usually; and indeed Iwalked a great way where I had no business. I went up Holborn, and therethe street was full of people; but they walked in the middle of thegreat street, neither on one side or[39] other, because, as I suppose,they would not mingle with anybody that came out of houses, or meet withsmells and scents from houses, that might be infected.
The inns of court were all shut up, nor were very many of the lawyers inthe Temple,[40] or Lincoln's Inn, or Gray's Inn, to be seen there.Everybody was at peace, there was no occasion for lawyers; besides, itbeing in the time of the vacation too, they were generally gone into thecountry. Whole rows of houses in some places were shut close up, theinhabitants all fled, and only a watchman or two left.
When I speak of rows of houses being shut up, I do not mean shut up bythe magistrates, but that great numbers of persons followed the court,by the necessity of their employments, and other dependencies; and asothers retired, really frighted with the distemper, it was a meredesolating of some of the streets. But the fright was not yet near sogreat in the city, abstractedly so called,[41] and particularly because,though they were at first in a most inexpressible consternation, yet, asI have observed that the distemper intermitted often at first, so theywere, as it were, alarmed and unalarmed again, and this several times,till it began to be familiar to them; and that even when it appearedviolent, yet seeing it did not presently spread into the city, or theeast or south parts, the people began to take courage, and to be, as Imay say, a little hardened. It is true, a vast many people fled, as Ihave observed; yet they were chiefly from the west end of the town, andfrom that we call the heart of the city, that is to say, among thewealthiest of the people, and such persons as were unincumbered withtrades and business. But of the rest, the generality staid, and seemedto abide the worst; so that in the place we call the liberties, and inthe suburbs, in Southwark, and in the east part, such as Wapping,Ratcliff, Stepney, Rotherhithe, and the like, the people generallystaid, except here and there a few wealthy families, who, as above, didnot depend upon their business.
It must not be forgot here that the city and suburbs were prodigiouslyfull of people at the time of this visitation, I mean at the time thatit began. For though I have lived to see a further increase, and mightythrongs of people settling in London, more than ever; yet we had alwaysa notion that numbers of people which--the wars being over, the armiesdisbanded, and the royal family and the monarchy being restored--hadflocked to London to settle in business, or to depend upon and attendthe court for rewards of services, preferments, and the like, was[42]such that the town was computed to have in it above a hundred thousandpeople more than ever it held before. Nay, some took upon them to sayit had twice as many, because all the ruined families of the royal partyflocked hither, all the soldiers set up trades here, and abundance offamilies settled here. Again: the court brought with it a great flux ofpride and new fashions; all people were gay and luxurious, and the joyof the restoration had brought a vast many families to London.[43]
But I must go back again to the beginning of this surprising time. Whilethe fears of the people were young, they were increased strangely byseveral odd accidents, which put altogether, it was really a wonder thewhole body of the people did not rise as one man, and abandon theirdwellings, leaving the place as a space of ground designed by Heaven foran Aceldama,[44] doomed to be destroyed from the face of the earth, andthat all that would be found in it would perish with it. I shall namebut a few of these things; but sure they were so many, and so manywizards and cunning people propagating them, that I have often wonderedthere was any (women especially) left behind.
In the first place, a blazing star or comet appeared for several monthsbefore the plague, as there did, the year after, another a little beforethe fire. The old women, and the phlegmatic hypochondriac[45] part ofthe other sex (whom I could almost call old women too), remarked,especially afterward, though not till both those judgments were over,that those two comets passed directly over the city, and that so verynear the houses that it was plain they imported something peculiar tothe city alone; that the comet before the pestilence was of a faint,dull, languid color, and its motion very heavy, solemn, and slow, butthat the comet before the fire was bright and sparkling, or, as otherssaid, flaming, and its motion swift and furious; and that, accordingly,one foretold a heavy judgment, slow but severe, terrible, andfrightful, as was the plague, but the other foretold a stroke, sudden,swift, and fiery, as was the conflagration. Nay, so particular somepeople were, that, as they looked upon that comet preceding the fire,they fancied that they not only saw it pass swiftly and fiercely, andcould perceive the motion with their eye, but even they heard it; thatit made a rushing, mighty noise, fierce and terrible, though at adistance, and but just perceivable.
I saw both these
stars, and, I must confess, had had so much of thecommon notion of such things in my head, that I was apt to look uponthem as the forerunners and warnings of God's judgments, and, especiallywhen the plague had followed the first, I yet saw another of the likekind, I could not but say, God had not yet sufficiently scourged thecity.
The apprehensions of the people were likewise strangely increased by theerror of the times, in which I think the people, from what principle Icannot imagine, were more addicted to prophecies, and astrologicalconjurations, dreams, and old wives' tales, than ever they were beforeor since.[46] Whether this unhappy temper was originally raised by thefollies of some people who got money by it, that is to say, by printingpredictions and prognostications, I know not. But certain it is, booksfrighted them terribly, such as "Lilly's Almanack,"[47] "Gadbury'sAstrological Predictions," "Poor Robin's Almanack,"[48] and the like;also several pretended
