; but the tenant, as may be supposed,
at such a dismal time as that, was dead or removed, and so he had the
key in his own keeping. Having[99] made his way into this stall, which
he could not have done if the man had been at the door, the noise he was
obliged to make being such as would have alarmed the watchman,--I say,
having made his way into this stall, he sat still till the watchman
returned with the nurse, and all the next day also; but the night
following, having contrived to send the watchman of another trifling
errand (which, as I take it, was to an apothecary's for a plaster for
the maid, which he was to stay for the making up, or some other such
errand that might secure his staying some time), in that time he
conveyed himself and all his family out of the house, and left the nurse
and the watchman to bury the poor wench, that is, throw her into the
cart, and take care of the house.

Not far from the same place they blowed up a watchman with gunpowder,
and burned the poor fellow dreadfully; and while he made hideous cries,
and nobody would venture to come near to help him, the whole family that
were able to stir got out at the windows (one story high), two that were
left sick calling out for help. Care was taken to give them nurses to
look after them; but the persons fled were never found till, after the
plague was abated, they returned. But as nothing could be proved, so
nothing could be done to them.

In other cases, some had gardens and walls, or pales,[100] between them
and their neighbors, or yards and backhouses; and these, by friendship
and entreaties, would get leave to get over those walls or pales, and
so go out at their neighbors' doors, or, by giving money to their
servants, get them to let them through in the night. So that, in short,
the shutting up of houses was in no wise to be depended upon; neither
did it answer the end at all, serving more to make the people desperate,
and drive them to such extremities as that they would break out at all
adventures.

And that which was still worse, those that did thus break out spread the
infection farther, by their wandering about with the distemper upon them
in their desperate circumstances, than they would otherwise have done;
for whoever considers all the particulars in such cases must
acknowledge, and cannot doubt, but the severity of those confinements
made many people desperate, and made them run out of their houses at all
hazards, and with the pl