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 96 BRITISH PHYSICIANS. another ran about naked, except a pair of drawers about his waist, crying, day and night (like a man mentioned by Josephus, before the destruction of Jerusalem), 'Oh! the great and terrible God !' and said no more, but repeated these words con- tinually, with a voice and countenance full of horror, a swift pace ; and nobody could observe him to stop, or rest, or take any sustenance, nor would he enter into speech with any one." The effects of terror upon the mind of the vulgar may easily be imagined : to avert the im- pending woe, they had recourse to charms, phil- ters, amulets, and exorcisms. Meanwhile the gravest and most discreet persons viewed the gra- dual deepening of this great national calamity with feehngs of awe and amazement. The first notice of the plague which occurs in the Memoirs of Pepys is in these words, — " April 30th. Great fears of the sicknesse here in the city, it being said, that two or three houses are already shut up. God preserve us all ! " An order was made, about this time, that the houses of all infected persons should be marked with a red cross, having with it this subscription, — LORD, HAVE MERCY UPON US! This circumstance is mentioned by Pepys, thus : " June 7th. The hottest day that ever I felt in my life. — This day, much against my will, I did, in Drury-lane, see two or three houses marked with a red cross upon the doors, and ' Lord have mercy upon us' writ there ; which was a sad sight to me, being the first of the kind that, to my