ome into such a town, rather[214] than
for having any signal of infection upon them, or upon any belonging to
them.

With this certificate they removed, though with great reluctance; and,
John inclining not to go far from home, they removed towards the marshes
on the side of Waltham. But here they found a man who, it seems, kept a
weir or stop upon the river, made to raise water for the barges which go
up and down the river; and he terrified them with dismal stories of the
sickness having been spread into all the towns on the river and near the
river, on the side of Middlesex and Hertfordshire (that is to say, into
Waltham, Waltham Cross, Enfield, and Ware, and all the towns on the
road), that they were afraid to go that way; though it seems the man
imposed upon them, for that[215] the thing was not really true.

However, it terrified them, and they resolved to move across the forest
towards Rumford and Brentwood; but they heard that there were numbers of
people fled out of London that way, who lay up and down in the forest,
reaching near Rumford, and who, having no subsistence or habitation, not
only lived oddly,[216] and suffered great extremities in the woods and
fields for want of relief, but were said to be made so desperate by
those extremities, as that they offered many violences to the country,
robbed and plundered, and killed cattle, and the like; and others,
building huts and hovels by the roadside, begged, and that with an
importunity next door to demanding relief: so that the country was very
uneasy, and had been obliged to take some of them up.

This, in the first place, intimated to them that they would be sure to
find the charity and kindness of the county, which they had found here
where they were before, hardened and shut up against them; and that, on
the other hand, they would be questioned wherever they came, and would
be in danger of violence from others in like cases with themselves.

Upon all these considerations, John, their captain, in all their names,
went back to their good friend and benefactor who had relieved them
before, and, laying their case truly before him, humbly asked his
advice; and he as kindly advised them to take up their old quarters
again, or, if not, to remove but a little farther out of the road, and
directed them to a proper place for them. And as they really wanted some
house, rather than huts, to shelter them at that time of the year, it
growing on towards Michaelmas, th