Page:The child's pictorial history of England; (IA childspictorialh00corn).pdf/167

 streets, which were sad and silent, for death was in almost every house.

47. The king and queen, and most of the great people, went out of town, but some of the clergymen and other benevolent persons, stayed to do what good they could, and some of them caught the infection, and died.

48. At last, when the heat of the summer was over, the plague began to abate, and those who had survived it, returned to their usual occupations; but with sorrowful hearts, for most of them had to mourn the loss of their dearest friends.

49. The plague had often raged in London before, but had never been so bad; and perhaps the great fire that followed it, tended greatly to remove the cause of this dreadful distemper.

50. The memorable fire of London happened September, 1666. It began at a baker's shop, near London-bridge, and spread rapidly from street to street, till almost all the town was in flames.

51. It continued to burn for three days, and destroyed nearly the whole city, with most of the churches and public buildings; but there were very few lives lost, as the people fled from their houses when they saw the fire approaching the street in which they lived.