Giles's without seeing a single living creature, or the
sign of one in any of the houses. The broad thoroughfare was completely
grown over with grass, and the habitations had the most melancholy and
deserted air imaginable. Some doors and windows were wide open,
discovering rooms with goods and furniture scattered about, having been
left in this state by their inmates; but most part of them were closely
fastened up.

As he proceeded along Holborn, the ravages of the scourge were yet more
apparent. Every house, on either side of the way, had a red cross, with
the fatal inscription above it, upon the door. Here and there, a
watchman might be seen, looking more like a phantom than a living thing.
Formerly, the dead were conveyed away at night, but now the carts went
about in the daytime. On reaching Saint Andrew's, Holborn, several
persons were seen wheeling hand-barrows filled with corpses, scarcely
covered with clothing, and revealing the blue and white stripes of the
pestilence, towards a cart which was standing near the church gates. The
driver of the vehicle, a tall, cadaverous-looking man, was ringing his
bell, and jesting with another person, whom the young man recognised,
with a shudder, as Chowles. The coffin-maker also recognised him at the
same moment, and called to him, but the other paid no attention to the
summons and passed on.

Crossing Holborn Bridge, he toiled faintly up the opposite hill, for he
was evidently suffering from extreme debility, and on gaining the summit
was obliged to support himself against a wall for a few minutes, before
he could proceed. The same frightful evidences of the ravages of the
pestilence were observable here, as elsewhere. The houses were all
marked with the fatal cross, and shut up. Another dead-cart was heard
rumbling along, accompanied by the harsh cries of the driver, and the
doleful ringing of the bell. The next moment the loathly vehicle was
seen coming along the Old Bailey. It paused before a house, from which
four bodies were brought, and then passed on towards Smithfield.
Watching its progress with fearful curiosity, the young man noted how
often it paused to increase its load. His thoughts, coloured by the
scene, were of the saddest and dreariest complexion. All around wore the
aspect of death. The few figures in sight seemed staggering towards the
grave, and the houses appeared to be plague-stricken like the
inhabitants. The heat was intolerably oppressive, and t