ested they found the gate open, and the
warehouse door open, and that it had no doubt been broken open by some
who expected to find goods of greater value; which indeed was reasonable
to believe, because the lock was broke, and a padlock that hung to the
door on the outside also loose, and not abundance of the hats carried
away.

At length I considered that this was not a time to be cruel and
rigorous; and besides that, it would necessarily oblige me to go much
about, to have several people come to me, and I go to several, whose
circumstances of health I knew nothing of; and that, even at this time,
the plague was so high as that there died four thousand a week; so that,
in showing my resentment, or even in seeking justice for my brother's
goods, I might lose my own life. So I contented myself with taking the
names and places where some of them lived, who were really inhabitants
in the neighborhood, and threatening that my brother should call them to
an account for it when he returned to his habitation.

Then I talked a little upon another footing with them, and asked them
how they could do such things as these in a time of such general
calamity, and, as it were, in the face of God's most dreadful judgments,
when the plague was at their very doors, and, it may be, in their very
houses, and they did not know but that the dead cart might stop at their
doors in a few hours, to carry them to their graves.

I could not perceive that my discourse made much impression upon them
all that while, till it happened that there came two men of the
neighborhood, hearing of the disturbance, and knowing my brother (for
they had been both dependents upon his family), and they came to my
assistance. These being, as I said, neighbors, presently knew three of
the women, and told me who they were, and where they lived, and it seems
they had given me a true account of themselves before.

This brings these two men to a further remembrance. The name of one was
John Hayward, who was at that time under-sexton of the parish of St.
Stephen, Coleman Street (by under-sexton was understood at that time
gravedigger and bearer of the dead). This man carried, or assisted to
carry, all the dead to their graves, which were buried in that large
parish, and who were carried in form, and, after that form of burying
was stopped, went with the dead cart and the bell to fetch the dead
bodies from the houses where they lay, and fetched many of them out of
the