ance
and superstition, were among the chief sufferers. Bands of marauders
wandered through the country plundering the houses left empty by the
death of all their occupants, and from end to end death and suffering
were universal.

Although all classes had suffered heavily the ravages of the disease
were, as is always the case, greater among the poor than among the rich,
the insanitary conditions of their life, and their coarser and commoner
food rendering them more liable to its influence; no rank, however, was
exempted, and no less than three Archbishops of Canterbury were carried
off in succession by the pestilence within a year of its appearance.

During the months which succeeded his marriage Sir Walter Somers lived
quietly and happily with his wife at Westerham. It was not until late
in the year that the plague approached the neighbourhood. Walter had
determined to await its approach there. He had paid a few short visits
to the court, where every effort was made by continuous gaiety to keep
up the spirits of the people and prevent them from brooding over the
approaching pestilence; but when it was at hand Walter and his wife
agreed that they would rather share the lot of their tenants, whom their
presence and example might support and cheer in their need, than
return to face it in London. One morning when they were at breakfast a
frightened servant brought in the news that the disease had appeared
in the village, that three persons had been taken ill on the previous
night, that two had already died, and that several others had sickened.

"The time has come, my children," Dame Vernon said calmly, "the danger
so long foreseen is at hand, now let us face it as we agreed to do. It
has been proved that flight is useless, since nowhere is there escape
from the plague; here, at least, there shall be no repetition of the
terrible scenes we have heard of elsewhere, where the living have fled
in panic and allowed the stricken to die unattended. We have already
agreed that we will set the example to our people by ourselves going
down and administering to the sick."

"It is hard," Walter said, rising and pacing up and down the room, "to
let Edith go into it."

"Edith will do just the same as you do," his wife said firmly. "Were it
possible that all in this house might escape, there might be a motive
for turning coward, but seeing that no household is spared, there is, as
we agreed, greater danger in flying from the pestile