othing would do. He read the bills of mortality daily; ascertained
the particulars of every case; dilated upon the agonies of the
sufferers; watched the progress of the infection, and calculated the
time it would take to reach Wood-street. He talked of the pestilence by
day, and dreamed of it at night; and more than once alarmed the house by
roaring for assistance, under the idea that he was suddenly attacked. By
his mother's advice, he steeped rue, wormwood, and sage in his drink,
till it was so abominably nauseous that he could scarcely swallow it,
and carried a small ball in the hollow of his hand, compounded of wax,
angelica, camphor, and other drugs. He likewise chewed a small piece of
Virginian snake-root, or zedoary, if he approached any place supposed to
be infected. A dried toad was suspended round his neck, as an amulet of
sovereign virtue. Every nostrum sold by the quacks in the streets
tempted him; and a few days before, he had expended his last crown in
the purchase of a bottle of plague-water. Being of a superstitious
nature, he placed full faith in all the predictions of the astrologers,
who foretold that London should be utterly laid waste, that grass should
grow in the streets, and that the living should not be able to bury the
dead. He quaked at the terrible denunciations of the preachers, who
exhorted their hearers to repentance, telling them a judgment was at
hand, and shuddered at the wild and fearful prophesying of the insane
enthusiasts who roamed the streets. His nativity having been cast, and
it appearing that he would be in great danger on the 20th of June, he
made up his mind that he should die of the plague on that day. Before he
was assailed by these terrors, he had entertained a sneaking attachment
for Patience, the kitchen-maid, a young and buxom damsel, who had no
especial objection to him. But of late, his love had given way to
apprehension, and his whole thoughts were centred in one idea, namely,
self-preservation.

By this time supper was over, and the family were about to separate for
the night, when Stephen, the grocer's eldest son, having risen to quit
the room, staggered and complained of a strange dizziness and headache,
which almost deprived him of sight, while his heart palpitated
frightfully. A dreadful suspicion seized his father. He ran towards him,
and assisted him to a seat. Scarcely had the young man reached it, when
a violent sickness seized him; a greenish-coloured froth