then the disease began to
spread. A severe frost checked it for a time. But in March, when milder
weather returned, it broke out again.

The disease, when it seized upon a person, brought upon him a most
distressing horror of mind. This was followed by fever and delirium. But
the certain signs of the plague were spots, pustules, and swellings,
which spread over the whole body. Death in most cases rapidly followed.
Some there were who recovered, but the majority gave themselves over for
lost on the first appearance. Many of the physicians ran away from the
infected City: many of the parish clergy deserted their churches. The
Lord Mayor and Aldermen, however, remained, by their presence giving
heart to those of the clergy and physicians who stayed, and by their
prudent measures preventing a vast amount of additional suffering which
would otherwise have fallen upon the unhappy people.

51. THE TERROR OF THE PLAGUE.

PART II.

In the month of May it was found that twenty City parishes were
infected. Certain preventions, rather than remedies, of which there were
none, were now employed by the Mayor. Infected houses were shut up: no
one was allowed to go in or to come out: food was conveyed by buckets
let down from an upper window: the dead bodies were lowered in the same
way, from the windows: on the doors were painted red crosses with the
words, 'Lord, have mercy upon us!' Watchmen were placed at the doors to
prevent the unhappy prisoners from coming out. All the dogs and cats in
the City, being supposed to carry about infection in their fur or hair,
were slaughtered--40,000 dogs, it is stated, and 200,000 cats, which
seems an impossible number, were killed. They also tried, but without
success, to kill the rats and mice. Everything was tried except the one
thing wanted--air and cleanliness. At the outset a great many of the
better sort left the City and stayed in the country till the danger was
over: others would have followed but the country people would not suffer
their presence and drove them back with clubs and pikes. So they had to
come back and die in the City. Then all the shops closed: all industries
were stopped: men could no longer sit beside each other: the masters
dismissed their apprentices and their workmen and their servants. In the
river the ships lay with their cargoes half discharged: on the quays
stood the bales, unopened. In the churches there were no services except
where the scanty congreg