Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/130

 If I could but tell this Part, in ſuch moving Accents as ſhould alarm the very Soul of the Reader, I ſhould rejoice that I recorded thoſe Things, however ſhort and imperfect.

It pleaſed God that I was ſtill ſpar’d, and very hearty and found in Health, but very impatient of being pent up within Doors without Air, as I had been for 14 Days or thereabouts; and I could not reſtrain my ſelf, but I would go to carry a Letter for my Brother to the Poſt-Houſe; then it was indeed, that I obſerv’d a profound Silence in the Streets; when I came to the Poſt-Houſe, as I went to put in my Letter, I ſaw a Man ſtand in one Corner of the Yard, and talking to another at a Window; and a third had open’d a Door belonging to the Office; In the middle of the Yard lay a ſmall Leather Purſe, with two Keys hanging at it, and Money in it, but no Body would meddle with it: I ask’d how long it had lain there; the Man at the Window ſaid, it had lain almoſt an Hour; but that they had not meddled with it, becauſe they did not know, but the Perſon who dropt it, might come back to look for it. I had no ſuch need of Money, nor was the Sum ſo big, that I had any Inclination to meddle with it, or to get the Money at the hazard it might be attended with; ſo I ſeem’d to go away, when the Man who had open’d the Door, ſaid, he would take it up; but ſo, that if the right Owner came for it, he ſhould be ſure to have it: So he went in, and fetched a pail of Water, and ſet it down hard by the Purſe; then went again, and fetch’d ſome Gun-powder, and caſt a good deal of Powder upon the Purſe, and then made a Train from that which he had thrown looſe upon the Purſe; the train reached about two Yards; after this he goes in a third Time, and fetches out a pair of Tongues red hot, and which he had prepar’d, I ſuppoſe on purpoſe; and firſt ſetting Fire to the Train of Powder, that ſing’d the Purſe and alſo ſmoak’d the Air ſufficiently: But he was not content with that; but he then takes up