Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/173

 might ſee they were content to live hardly, and only deſir’d a little Room to breath in on the Foreſt where it was wholſome, for where it was not they cou’d not ſtay, and wou’d decamp if they found it otherwiſe there.

But, ſaid the Townſmen, we have a great charge of Poor upon our Hands already, and we muſt take care not to encreaſe it; we ſuppoſe you can give us no Security againſt your being chargeable to our Pariſh and to the Inhabitants, any more than you can of being dangerous to us as to the Infection.

'Why look you,' ſays Fohn, 'as to being chargeable to you, we hope we ſhall not; if you will relieve us with Proviſions for our preſent Neceſſity, we will be very thankful; as we all liv’d without Charity when we were at Home, ſo we will oblige ourſelves fully to repay you, if God 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 ſurvive, will bury them, and put you to no Expence, except it ſhould be that we ſhould all die, and then indeed the laſt Man not being able to bury himſelf, would put you to that ſingle Expence, which I am perſwaded,' ſays John, 'he would leave enough behind him to pay you for the Expence of.'

'On the other Hand,' ſays John, 'if you will ſhut up all Bowels of Compaſſion and not relieve us at all, we ſhall not extort any thing by Violence, or ſteal from any one; but when what little we have is ſpent, if we periſh for want, God’s Will be done.'

John wrought ſo upon the Townſmen by talking thus rationally and ſmoothly to them, that they went away; and tho’ they did not give any conſent to their ſtaying there, yet they did not moleſt them;