ul scenes I have
witnessed since I have been brought here! I told you I should not escape
the plague. I shall die of it--I am sure I shall."

"I thought you were at the pest-house in Finsbury Fields," said Leonard.

"I was taken there," replied Blaize; "but the place was full, and they
would not admit me, so I was sent to Saint Paul's, where there was
plenty of room. Yesterday I did pretty well, for I was in the great ward
above, and one of the attendants obeyed my directions implicitly, and I
am certain if they had been fully carried out, I should have got well. I
will tell you what I did. As soon as I was placed on a pallet, and
covered with blankets, I ordered a drink to be prepared of the inner
bark of an ash-tree, green walnuts, scabious vervain, and saffron,
boiled in two quarts of the strongest vinegar. Of this mixture I drank
plentifully, and it soon produced a plentiful perspiration. I next had a
hen--a live one, of course--stripped of the feathers, and brought to me.
Its bill was held to the large blotch under my arm, and kept there till
the fowl died from the noxious matter it drew forth. I next repeated the
experiment with a pigeon, and derived the greatest benefit from it. The
tumour had nearly subsided, and if I had been properly treated
afterwards, I should now be in a fair way of recovery. But instead of
nice strengthening chicken-broth, flavoured with succory and marigolds;
or water-gruel, mixed with rosemary and winter-savory; or a panado,
seasoned with verjuice or wood-sorrel; instead of swallowing large
draughts of warm beer; or water boiled with carduus seeds; or a posset
drink, made with sorrel, bugloss, and borage;--instead of these
remedies, or any other, I was carried to this horrible place when I was
asleep, and strapped to my pallet, as you perceive. Unloose me, if you
can do nothing else."

"That I will readily do," replied Leonard; "but I must first procure a
light." With this, he groped his way among the close ranks of ponderous
pillars, but though he proceeded with the utmost caution, he could not
avoid coming in contact with the beds of some of the other patients, and
disturbing them. At length he descried a glimmer of light issuing from a
door which he knew to be that of the vestry, and which was standing
slightly ajar. Opening it, he perceived a lamp burning on the table, and
without stopping to look around him, seized it, and hurried back to the
porter. Poor Blaize presented a lament