Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/291

 Moment it pleaſed God, with a moſt agreeable Surprize, to cauſe the Fury of it to abate, even of it ſelf, and the Malignity declining, as I have ſaid, tho’ infinite Numbers were ſick, yet fewer died; and the very firſt Week’s Bill decreaſed 1843, a vaſt Number indeed!

It is impoſſible to expreſs the Change that appear’d in the very Countenances of the People, that Thurſday Morning, when the Weekly Bill came out; it might have been perceived in their Countenances, that a ſecret Surprize and Smile of Joy ſat on every Bodies Face; they ſhook one another by the Hands in the Streets, who would hardly go on the ſame Side of the way with one another before; where the Streets were not too broad, they would open their Windows and call from one Houſe to another, and aſk’d how they did, and if they had heard the good News, that the Plague was abated; Some would return when they ſaid good News, and aſk, what good News? and when they anſwered, that the Plague was abated, and the Bills decreaſed almoſt 2000, they would cry out, God be praiſed; and would weep aloud for Joy, telling them they had heard nothing of it; and ſuch was the Joy of the People that it was as it were Life to them from the Grave. I could almoſt ſet down as many extravagant things done in the Exceſs of their Joy, as of their Grief, but that would be to leſſen the Value of it.

I muſt confeſs my ſelf to have been very much dejected juſt before this happen’d; for the prodigious Number that were taken ſick the Week or two before, beſides thoſe that died, was ſuch, and the Lamentations were ſo great every where, that a Man muſt have ſeemed to have acted even againſt his Reaſon, if he had ſo much as expected to eſcape; and as there was hardly a Houſe, but mine, in all my Neighbourhood, but what was infected; ſo had it gone on,