Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/94

 The next Morning ſeeing no Appearance of the Gentleman, ſome Body in the Houſe asked the Servant that had ſhewed him up Stairs, what was become of him? She ſtarted; Alas ſays ſhe, I never thought more of him: He bad me carry him ſome warm Ale, but I forgot; upon which, not the Maid, but ſome other Perſon, was ſent up to ſee after him, who coming into the Room found him ſtark dead, and almoſt cold, ſtrerch’d out croſs the Bed; his Cloths were pulled off, his Jaw fallen, his Eyes open in a moſt frightful Poſture, the Rug of the Bed being graſped hard in one of his Hands; ſo that it was plain he died ſoon after the Maid left him, and ’tis probable, had ſhe gone up with the Ale, ſhe had found him dead in a few Minutes after he ſat down upon the Bed. The Alarm was great in the Houſe, as any one may ſuppoſe, they having been free from the Diſtemper, till that Diſaſter, which bringing the Infection to the Houſe, ſpread it immediately to other Houſes round about it. I do not remember how many died in the Houſe it ſelf, but I think the Maid Servant, who went up firſt with him, fell preſently ill by the Fright, and ſeveral others; for whereas there died but two in Iſlington of the Plague the Week before, there died 17 the Week after, whereof 14 were of the Plague; this was in the Week from the 11th of July to the 18th.

There was one Shift that ſome Families had and that not a few, when their Houſes happened to be infected, and that was this; The Families, who in the firſt breaking out of the Diſtemper, fled away into the Country, and had Retreats among their Friends, generally found ſome or other of their Neighbours or Relations to commit the Charge of thoſe Houſes to, for the Safety of the Goods, and the like. Some Honſes were indeed, entirely lock’d up, the Doors padlockt, the Windows and Doors having Deal-Boards nail’d over them, and only the Inſpection of them committed to the ordinary Watchmen and Pariſh Officers; but theſe were but few.