Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/68

 Upon this, the two Men to ſatisſy their Curioſity, got a long Ladder, and one of them went up to the Window, and look'd into the Room, where he faw a Woman lying dead upon the Floor, in a diſmal Manner, having no Cloaths on her but her Shift: But tho' he call'd aloud, and putting in his long Staff, knock'd hard on the Floor, yet no Body ſtirr'd or anſwered; neither could he hear any Noiſe in the Houſe.

He came down again, upon this, and acquainted his Fellow, who went up alſo, and finding it juſt ſo, they reſolv'd, to acquaint either the Lord Mayor, or ſome other Magiſtrate of it, but did not offer to go in at the Window: The Magiſtrate it ſeems, upon the Information of the two Men, ordered the Houſe to be broken open, a Conſtable, and other Perſons being appointed to be preſent, that nothing might be plundred,; and accordingly it was ſo done, when no Body was found in the Houſe, but that young Woman, who having been infected, and paſt Recovery, the reſt had left her to die by her ſelf, and were every one gone, having found ſome Way to delude the Watchman, and get open the Door, of get out at ſome Back Door, or over the Tops of the Houſes, ſo that he knew nothing of it, and as to thoſe Crys and Shrieks, which he heard, it was ſuppos'd, they were the paſſionate Cries of the Family, at t he bitter parting, which, to be ſure, it was to them all; this being the Siſter to the Miſtreſs of the Family. The Man of the Houſe, his Wife, ſeveral Children, and Servants, being all gone and fled, whether ſick or ſound, that I could never learn, nor, indeed, did I make much Enquiry after it.

Many ſuch eſcapes were made, out of infected Houſes, as particularly, when the Watchman was ſent of ſome Errand; for it was his Buſineſs to go