History of the Plague in London
Page 28
Waltham,[200]--the other in two companies, butall a little asunder,--and went towards Epping.[200]
The first night they encamped all in the forest, and not far off fromone another, but not setting up the tent for fear that should discoverthem. On the other hand, Richard went to work with his ax and hishatchet, and, cutting down branches of trees, he built three tents orhovels, in which they all encamped with as much convenience as theycould expect.
The provisions they had at Walthamstow served them very plentifully thisnight; and as for the next, they left it to Providence. They had faredso well with the old soldier's conduct, that they now willingly made himtheir leader, and the first of his conduct appeared to be very good. Hetold them that they were now at a proper distance enough from London;that, as they need not be immediately beholden to the country forrelief, they ought to be as careful the country did not infect them asthat they did not infect the country; that what little money they hadthey must be as frugal of as they could; that as he would not have themthink of offering the country any violence, so they must endeavor tomake the sense of their condition go as far with the country as itcould. They all referred themselves to his direction: so they left theirthree houses standing, and the next day went away towards Epping; thecaptain also (for so they now called him), and his two fellow travelers,laid aside their design of going to Waltham, and all went together.
When they came near Epping, they halted, choosing out a proper place inthe open forest, not very near the highway, but not far out of it, onthe north side, under a little cluster of low pollard trees.[201] Herethey pitched their little camp, which consisted of three large tents orhuts made of poles, which their carpenter, and such as were hisassistants, cut down, and fixed in the ground in a circle, binding allthe small ends together at the top, and thickening the sides with boughsof trees and bushes, so that they were completely close and warm. Theyhad besides this a little tent where the women lay by themselves, and ahut to put the horse in.
It happened that the next day, or the next but one, was market day atEpping, when Captain John and one of the other men went to market andbought some provisions, that is to say, bread, and some mutton and beef;and two of the women went separately, as if they had not belonged to therest, and bought more. John took the horse to bring it home, and thesack which the carpenter carried his tools in, to put it in. Thecarpenter went to work and made them benches and stools to sit on, suchas the wood he could get would afford, and a kind of a table to dine on.
They were taken no notice of for two or three days; but after that,abundance of people ran out of the town to look at them, and all thecountry was alarmed about them. The people at first seemed afraid tocome near them; and, on the other hand, they desired the people to keepoff, for there was a rumor that the plague was at Waltham, and that ithad been in Epping two or three days. So John called out to them not tocome to them. "For," says he, "we are all whole and sound people here,and we would not have you bring the plague among us, nor pretend webrought it among you."
After this, the parish officers came up to them, and parleyed with themat a distance, and desired to know who they were, and by what authoritythey pretended to fix their stand at that place. John answered veryfrankly, they were poor distressed people from London, who, foreseeingthe misery they should be reduced to if the plague spread into the city,had fled out in time for their lives, and, having no acquaintance orrelations to fly to, had first taken up at Islington, but, the plaguebeing come into that town, were fled farther; and, as they supposed thatthe people of Epping might have refused them coming into their town,they had pitched their tents thus in the open field and in the forest,being willing to bear all the hardships of such a disconsolate lodgingrather than have any one think, or be afraid, that they should receiveinjury by them.
At first the Epping people talked roughly to them, and told them theymust remove; that this was no place for them; and that they pretended tobe sound and well, but that they might be infected with the plague, foraught they knew, and might infect the whole country, and they could notsuffer them there.
John argued very calmly with them a great while, and told them thatLondon was the place by which they, that is, the townsmen of Epping, andall the country round them, subsisted; to whom they sold the produce oftheir lands, and out of whom they made the rents of their farms; and tobe so cruel to the inhabitants of London, or to any of those by whomthey gained so much, was very hard; and they would be loath to have itremembered hereafter, and have it told, how barbarous, how inhospitable,and how unkind they were to the people of London when they fled from theface of the most terrible enemy in the world; that it would be enough tomake the name of an Epping man hateful throughout all the city, and tohave the rabble stone them in the very streets whenever they came somuch as to market; that they were not yet secure from being visitedthemselves, and that, as he heard, Waltham was already; that they wouldthink it very hard, that, when any of them fled for fear before theywere touched, they should be denied the liberty of lying so much as inthe open fields.
The Epping men told them again that they, indeed, said they were sound,and free from the infection, but that they had no assurance of it; andthat it was reported that there had been a great rabble of people atWalthamstow, who made such pretenses of being sound as they did, butthat they threatened to plunder the town, and force their way, whetherthe parish officers would or no; that there were near two hundred ofthem, and had arms and tents like Low Country soldiers; that theyextorted provisions from the town by threatening them with living uponthem at free quarter,[202] showing their arms, and talking in thelanguage of soldiers; and that several of them having gone away towardsRumford and Brentwood, the country had been infected by them, and theplague spread into both those large towns, so that the people durst notgo to market there, as usual; that it was very likely they were some ofthat party, and, if so, they deserved to be sent to the county jail, andbe secured till they had made satisfaction for the damage they had done,and for the terror and fright they had put the country into.
John answered, that what other people had done was nothing to them; thatthey assured them they were all of one company; that they had never beenmore in number than they saw them at that time (which, by the way, wasvery true); that they came out in two separate companies, but joined bythe way, their cases being the same; that they were ready to give whataccount of themselves anybody desired of them, and to give in theirnames and places of abode, that so they might be called to an accountfor any disorder that they might be guilty of; that the townsmen mightsee they were content to live hardly, and only desired a little room tobreathe in on the forest, where it was wholesome (for where it was not,they could not stay, and would decamp if they found it otherwise there).
"But," said the townsmen, "we have a great charge of poor upon our handsalready, and we must take care not to increase it. We suppose you cangive us no security against your being chargeable to our parish and tothe inhabitants, any more than you can of being dangerous to us as tothe infection."
"Why, look you," says John, "as to being chargeable to you, we hope weshall not. If you will relieve us with provisions for our presentnecessity, we will be very thankful. As we all lived without charitywhen we were at home, so we will oblige ourselves fully to repay you, ifGod please to bring us back to our own families and houses in safety,and to restore health to the people of London.
"As to our dying here, we assure you, if any of us die, we that survivewill bury them, and put you to no expense, except it should be that weshould all die, and then, indeed, the last man, not being able to buryhimself, would put you to that single expense; which I am persuaded,"says John, "he would leave enough behind him to pay you for the expenseof.
"On the other hand," says John, "if you will shut up all bowels ofcompassion, and not relieve us at all, we shall not extort anything byviolence, or steal from any one; but when that little we have is spent,if we perish for want, God's will be done!"
John wrought so upon the townsmen by tal
king thus rationally andsmoothly to them, that they went away; and though they did not give anyconsent to their staying there, yet they did not molest them, and thepoor people continued there three or four days longer without anydisturbance. In this time they had got some remote acquaintance with avictualing house on the outskirts of the town, to whom they called at adistance to bring some little things that they wanted, and which theycaused to be set down at some distance, and always paid for veryhonestly.
During this time the younger people of the town came frequently prettynear them, and would stand and look at them, and would sometimes talkwith them at some space between; and particularly it was observed thatthe first sabbath day the poor people kept retired, worshiped Godtogether, and were heard to sing psalms.
These things, and a quiet, inoffensive behavior, began to get them thegood opinion of the country, and the people began to pity them and