Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/36

 Readineſs;, I ſee it all plainly, ſays one: There's the Sword as plain as can be. Another ſaw the Angel. One ſaw his very Face, and cry'd out, What a glorious Creature he was! One ſaw one thing, and one another. I look'd as earneſtly as the reſt, but, perhaps, not with ſo much Willingneſs to be impos'd upon; and I ſaid indeed, that I could ſee nothing, but a white Cloud, bright on one Side, by the ſhining of the Sun upon the other Part. The Woman endeavour'd to ſhew it me, but could not make me confeſs, that I ſaw it, which, indeed, if I had, I muſt have lied: But the Woman turning upon me, look'd in my Face, and fancied I laugh'd; in which her Imagination deceiv'd her too; for I really did not laugh, but was very ſeriouſly reflecting how the poor People were terrify'd, by the Force of their own Imagination. However, ſhe turned from me, call'd me prophane Fellow, and a Scoffer; told me, that it was a time of God's Anger, and dreadful Judgments were approaching; and that Deſpiſers, ſuch as, ſhould wonder and periſh.

The People about her ſeem'd diſguſted as well as ſhe; and I found there was no perſwading them, that I did not laugh at them; and that I ſhould be rather mobb'd by them, than be able to undeceive them. So I left them; and this Appearance paſs'd for as real, as the Blazing Star it ſelf.

Another Encounter I had in the open Day alſo: And this was in going thro' a narrow Paſſage from Petty-France into Biſhopſgate Church Yard, by a Row of Alms-Houſes; there are two Church Yards to Biſbopſgate Church, or Pariſh; one we go over to paſs from the Place call'd Petty-France into Biſhopſgate Street, coming out juſt by the Church Door, the other is on the ſide of the narrow Paſſage, where the Alms-Houſes are on the left; and a