Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/104

 and then cry’d, ''Oh! Death, Death, Death!'' in a moſt inimitable Tone, and which ſtruck me with Horror and a Chilneſs, in my very Blood: There was no Body to be ſeen in the whole Street, neither did any other Window openſ; for People had no Curioſity now in any Caſe; nor could any Body help one another; ſo I went on to paſs into Bell-Alley.

Juſt in Bell-Alley, on the right Hand of the Paſſage, there was a more terrible Cry than that, tho’ it was not ſo directed out at the Window, but the whole Family was in a terrible Fright, and I could hear Women and Children run skreaming about the Rooms like diſtracted, when a Garret Window opened, and ſome body from a Window on the other Side the Alley, call'd and ask’d, What is the Matter? upon which, from the firſt Window it was anſwered, O Lord, my Old Maſter has hang’d himſelf! The other ask’d again, Is he quite dead? and the firſt anſwer’d, Ay, ay, quite dead, quite dead and cold! This Perſon was a Merchant, and a Deputy Alderman, and very rich. I care not to mention the Name, tho’ I knew his Name too, but that would be an Hardſhip to the Family, which is now flouriſhing again. But, this is but one; it is ſcarce credible what dreadful Caſes happened in particular Families every Day; People in the Rage of the Diſtemper, or in the Torment of their Swellings, which was indeed intollerable, running out of their own Government, raving and diſtracted, and oftentimes laying violent Hands upon themſelves, throwing themſelves out at their Windows, ſhooting themſelves, &c. Mothers murthering their own Children, in their Lunacy, ſome dying of meer Grief, as a Paſſion, ſome of meer Fright and Surprize, without any Infection at all; others frighted into Idiotiſm, and fooliſh Diſtractions, ſome into diſpair and Lunacy; others into mellancholy Madneſs.

The Pain of the Swelling was in particular very violent, and to ſome intollerable, the Phyſicians