own, that we brought with us; but the plague is come up into
Islington too, and a house next door to our poor dwelling was
infected and shut up, and we are come away in a fright.

_Rich._ And what way are you going?

_Ford._ As our lot shall cast us, we know not whither; but God will
guide those that look up to him.

They parleyed no further at that time, but came all up to the barn, and
with some difficulty got into it. There was nothing but hay in the barn,
but it was almost full of that, and they accommodated themselves as well
as they could, and went to rest; but our travelers observed that before
they went to sleep, an ancient man, who, it seems, was the father of one
of the women, went to prayer with all the company, recommending
themselves to the blessing and protection of Providence before they went
to sleep.

It was soon day at that time of the year; and as Richard the joiner had
kept guard the first part of the night, so John the soldier relieved
him, and he had the post in the morning. And they began to be acquainted
with one another. It seems, when they left Islington, they intended to
have gone north away to Highgate, but were stopped at Holloway, and
there they would not let them pass; so they crossed over the fields and
hills to the eastward, and came out at the Boarded River, and so,
avoiding the towns, they left Hornsey on the left hand, and Newington on
the right hand, and came into the great road about Stamford Hill on that
side, as the three travelers had done on the other side. And now they
had thoughts of going over the river in the marshes, and make forwards
to Epping Forest, where they hoped they should get leave to rest. It
seems they were not poor, at least not so poor as to be in want: at
least, they had enough to subsist them moderately for two or three
months, when, as they said, they were in hopes the cold weather would
check the infection, or at least the violence of it would have spent
itself, and would abate, if it were only for want of people left alive
to be infected.

This was much the fate of our three travelers, only that they seemed to
be the better furnished for traveling, and had it in their view to go
farther off; for, as to the first, they did not propose to go farther
than one day's journey, that so they might have intelligence every two
or three days how things were at London.

But here our travelers found themselves under an unexpected
inconv