egree,
so that, as I may say, they gave themselves up, and, as I mentioned
above, abandoned themselves to their despair.

But let me observe here, that when I say the people abandoned themselves
to despair, I do not mean to what men call a religious despair, or a
despair of their eternal state; but I mean a despair of their being able
to escape the infection, or to outlive the plague, which they saw was so
raging, and so irresistible in its force, that indeed few people that
were touched with it in its height, about August and September, escaped;
and, which is very particular, contrary to its ordinary operation in
June and July and the beginning of August, when, as I have observed,
many were infected, and continued so many days, and then went off, after
having had the poison in their blood a long time. But now, on the
contrary, most of the people who were taken during the last two weeks in
August, and in the first three weeks in September, generally died in two
or three days at the farthest, and many the very same day they were
taken. Whether the dog days[244] (as our astrologers pretended to
express themselves, the influence of the Dog Star) had that malignant
effect, or all those who had the seeds of infection before in them
brought it up to a maturity at that time altogether, I know not; but
this was the time when it was reported that above three thousand people
died in one night; and they that would have us believe they more
critically observed it pretend to say that they all died within the
space of two hours, viz., between the hours of one and three in the
morning.

As to the suddenness of people dying at this time, more than before,
there were innumerable instances of it, and I could name several in my
neighborhood. One family without the bars, and not far from me, were all
seemingly well on the Monday, being ten in family. That evening one maid
and one apprentice were taken ill, and died the next morning, when the
other apprentice and two children were touched, whereof one died the
same evening and the other two on Wednesday. In a word, by Saturday at
noon the master, mistress, four children, and four servants were all
gone, and the house left entirely empty, except an ancient woman, who
came to take charge of the goods for the master of the family's brother,
who lived not far off, and who had not been sick.

Many houses were then left desolate, all the people being carried away
dead; and especially in an all