s mate or companion came out, laid him
down beside there, and in like fashion died too. Later--an hour or
less to midnight--a third rat did e'en the same; always choosing the
moonlight to die in. This threw me into an amaze, since, as we know, the
moonlight is favourable, not hurtful, to the creatures of the Moon;
and Saturn, being friends with her, as you would say, was hourly
strengthening her evil influence. Yet these three rats had been stricken
dead in very moonlight. I leaned out of the window to see which of
Heaven's host might be on our side, and there beheld I good trusty Mars,
very red and heated, bustling about his setting. I straddled the roof to
see better.

'Jack Marget came up street going to comfort our sick in Hitheram's
field. A tile slipped under my foot.

Says he, heavily enough, "Watchman, what of the night?"

'"Heart up, Jack," says I. "Methinks there's one fighting for us that,
like a fool, I've forgot all this summer." My meaning was naturally the
planet Mars.

'"Pray to Him then," says he. "I forgot Him too this summer."

'He meant God, whom he always bitterly accused himself of having
forgotten up in Oxfordshire, among the King's men. I called down that
he had made amends enough for his sin by his work among the sick, but he
said he would not believe so till the plague was lifted from 'em. He was
at his strength's end--more from melancholy than any just cause. I have
seen this before among priests and overcheerful men. I drenched him then
and there with a half-cup of waters, which I do not say cure the plague,
but are excellent against heaviness of the spirits.'

'What were they?' said Dan.

'White brandy rectified, camphor, cardamoms, ginger, two sorts of
pepper, and aniseed.' 'Whew!' said Puck. 'Waters you call 'em!'

'Jack coughed on it valiantly, and went downhill with me. I was for the
Lower Mill in the valley, to note the aspect of the Heavens. My mind had
already shadowed forth the reason, if not the remedy, for our troubles,
but I would not impart it to the vulgar till I was satisfied. That
practice may be perfect, judgment ought to be sound, and to make
judgment sound is required an exquisite knowledge. Ahem! I left Jack and
his lantern among the sick in Hitheram's field. He still maintained
the prayers of the so-called Church, which were rightly forbidden by
Cromwell.'

'You should have told your cousin at Wigsell,' said Puck, 'and Jack
would have been fined for it, and you