by Daniel Defoe
it. Andas to those cries and shrieks which he heard, it was supposed they werethe passionate cries of the family at this bitter parting, which, to besure, it was to them all, this being the sister to the mistress of thefamily; the man of the house, his wife, several children and servants,being all gone and fled: whether sick or sound, that I could neverlearn, nor, indeed, did I make much inquiry after it.
At another house, as I was informed, in the street next within Aldgate,a whole family was shut up and locked in because the maidservant wastaken sick. The master of the house had complained by his friends to thenext alderman, and to the lord mayor, and had consented to have the maidcarried to the pesthouse, but was refused: so the door was marked with ared cross, a padlock on the outside, as above, and a watchman set tokeep the door, according to public order.
After the master of the house found there was no remedy, but that he,his wife, and his children, were locked up with this poor distemperedservant, he called to the watchman, and told him he must go then andfetch a nurse for them to attend this poor girl, for that it would becertain death to them all to oblige them to nurse her, and told himplainly that if he would not do this the maid would perish either[98] ofthe distemper, or be starved for want of food, for he was resolved noneof his family should go near her; and she lay in the garret, four storyhigh, where she could not cry out or call to anybody for help.
The watchman consented to that, and went and fetched a nurse as he wasappointed, and brought her to them the same evening. During thisinterval, the master of the house took his opportunity to break a largehole through his shop into a bulk or stall, where formerly a cobbler hadsat before or under his shop window; but the tenant, as may be supposed,at such a dismal time as that, was dead or removed, and so he had thekey in his own keeping. Having[99] made his way into this stall, whichhe could not have done if the man had been at the door, the noise he wasobliged to make being such as would have alarmed the watchman,--I say,having made his way into this stall, he sat still till the watchmanreturned with the nurse, and all the next day also; but the nightfollowing, having contrived to send the watchman of another triflingerrand (which, as I take it, was to an apothecary's for a plaster forthe maid, which he was to stay for the making up, or some other sucherrand that might secure his staying some time), in that time heconveyed himself and all his family out of the house, and left the nurseand the watchman to bury the poor wench, that is, throw her into thecart, and take care of the house.
Not far from the same place they blowed up a watchman with gunpowder,and burned the poor fellow dreadfully; and while he made hideous cries,and nobody would venture to come near to help him, the whole family thatwere able to stir got out at the windows (one story high), two that wereleft sick calling out for help. Care was taken to give them nurses tolook after them; but the persons fled were never found till, after theplague was abated, they returned. But as nothing could be proved, sonothing could be done to them.
In other cases, some had gardens and walls, or pales,[100] between themand their neighbors, or yards and backhouses; and these, by friendshipand entreaties, would get leave to get over those walls or pales, andso go out at their neighbors' doors, or, by giving money to theirservants, get them to let them through in the night. So that, in short,the shutting up of houses was in no wise to be depended upon; neitherdid it answer the end at all, serving more to make the people desperate,and drive them to such extremities as that they would break out at alladventures.
And that which was still worse, those that did thus break out spread theinfection farther, by their wandering about with the distemper upon themin their desperate circumstances, than they would otherwise have done;for whoever considers all the particulars in such cases mustacknowledge, and cannot doubt, but the severity of those confinementsmade many people desperate, and made them run out of their houses at allhazards, and with the plague visibly upon them, not knowing eitherwhither to go, or what to do, or indeed what they did. And many that didso were driven to dreadful exigencies and extremities, and perished inthe streets or fields for mere want, or dropped down by[101] the ragingviolence of the fever upon them. Others wandered into the country, andwent forward any way, as their desperation guided them, not knowingwhither they went or would go, till, faint and tired, and not gettingany relief, the houses and villages on the road refusing to admit themto lodge, whether infected or no, they have perished by the roadside, orgotten into barns, and died there, none daring to come to them orrelieve them, though perhaps not infected, for nobody would believethem.
On the other hand, when the plague at first seized a family, that is tosay, when any one body of the family had gone out, and unwarily orotherwise catched[102] the distemper and brought it home, it wascertainly known by the family before it was known to the officers, who,as you will see by the order, were appointed to examine into thecircumstances of all sick persons, when they heard of their being sick.
In this interval, between their being taken sick and the examinerscoming, the master of the house had leisure and liberty to removehimself, or all his family, if he knew whither to go; and many did so.But the great disaster was, that many did thus after they were reallyinfected themselves, and so carried the disease into the houses of thosewho were so hospitable as to receive them; which, it must be confessed,was very cruel and ungrateful.
I am speaking now of people made desperate by the apprehensions of theirbeing shut up, and their breaking out by stratagem or force, eitherbefore or after they were shut up, whose misery was not lessened whenthey were out, but sadly increased. On the other hand, many who thus gotaway had retreats to go to, and other houses, where they lockedthemselves up, and kept hid till the plague was over; and many families,foreseeing the approach of the distemper, laid up stores of provisionssufficient for their whole families, and shut themselves up, and that soentirely, that they were neither seen or heard of till the infection wasquite ceased, and then came abroad sound and well. I might recollectseveral such as these, and give you the particulars of their management;for doubtless it was the most effectual secure step that could be takenfor such whose circumstances would not admit them to remove, or who hadnot retreats abroad proper for the case; for, in being thus shut up,they were as if they had been a hundred miles off. Nor do I rememberthat any one of those families miscarried.[103] Among these, severalDutch merchants were particularly remarkable, who kept their houses likelittle garrisons besieged, suffering none to go in or out, or come nearthem; particularly one in a court in Throckmorton Street, whose houselooked into Drapers' Garden.
But I come back to the case of families infected, and shut up by themagistrates. The misery of those families is not to be expressed; and itwas generally in such houses that we heard the most dismal shrieks andoutcries of the poor people, terrified, and even frightened to death,by the sight of the condition of their dearest relations, and by theterror of being imprisoned as they were.
I remember, and while I am writing this story I think I hear the verysound of it: a certain lady had an only daughter, a young maiden aboutnineteen years old, and who was possessed of a very considerablefortune. They were only lodgers in the house where they were. The youngwoman, her mother, and the maid had been abroad on some occasion, I donot remember what, for the house was not shut up; but about two hoursafter they came home, the young lady complained she was not well; in aquarter of an hour more she vomited, and had a violent pain in her head."Pray God," says her mother, in a terrible fright, "my child has not thedistemper!" The pain in her head increasing, her mother ordered the bedto be warmed, and resolved to put her to bed, and prepared to give herthings to sweat, which was the ordinary remedy to be taken when thefirst apprehensions of the distemper began.
While the bed was airing, the mother undressed the young woman, and justas she was laid down in the bed, she, looking upon her body with acandle, immediately discovered the fatal tokens on the inside of herthighs. Her mother, not being able to contain herself, threw down hercandle, and screeched out in such a frightful manner,
that it was enoughto place horror upon the stoutest heart in the world. Nor was it onescream, or one cry, but, the fright having seized her spirits, shefainted first, then recovered, then ran all over the house (up thestairs and down the stairs) like one distracted, and indeed really wasdistracted, and continued screeching and crying out for several hours,void of all sense, or at least government of her senses, and, as I wastold, never came thoroughly to herself again. As to the young maiden,she was a dead corpse from that moment: for the gangrene, whichoccasions the spots, had spread over her whole body, and she died inless than two hours. But still the mother continued crying out, notknowing anything more of her child, several hours after she was dead.It is so long ago that I am not certain, but I think the mother neverrecovered, but died in two or three weeks after.
I have by me a story of two brothers and their kinsman, who, beingsingle men, but that had staid[104] in the city too long to get away,and,
