ultitude as King
Charles was beheaded. Now every day hundreds of people walk up and down
on the pavement before the Banqueting Hall, but hardly one thinks of
that awful day when a King's blood was shed on this very place.

The old palace of Whitehall has quite gone. Over the place where it was
are houses and gardens; some of the houses are large and some are quite
old. Only the Banqueting Hall remains, that part of the magnificent
palace that Inigo Jones meant to build for James I.

At the top of Whitehall at Charing Cross there is a statue of King
Charles on a horse, as if he were riding down toward the place where he
died. On the very spot where it stands, before it was put up, the worst
of the men who murdered Charles were themselves executed only a short
distance from the place of the King's execution. For after Cromwell's
death England realized her wickedness, and Charles's son came back to
reign. But never, never can be forgotten the dreadful deed that happened
in Whitehall more than two hundred and fifty years ago.

CHAPTER XVII

THE GREAT PLAGUE AND FIRE

Of all the awful calamities that have befallen London, there is none
more awful than the Great Plague, which happened when Charles II., son
of King Charles I., was on the throne. He had been restored to his
kingdom for less than five years when it happened. Two people died quite
suddenly in Westminster, and men looked grave and said it was the
plague. But at first they did not think much of it, for the plague had
often visited England before. But this time it was to be far, far worse
than anything anyone had ever known. It is said that the infection was
brought over from the Continent in some bales of goods that merchants
were bringing to sell in London, but this was never known for certain.
All at once two more people died unaccountably, and then it seemed as if
the plague leaped out from every corner, and people began dying all over
London. There had been a hard frost, and it was when the frost thawed
that the plague seemed to gain fresh strength. Everybody began to ask
questions. What were they to do? Couldn't they go away at once? What
were others doing to stop the spread of the infection? The awful
suddenness of it terrified everyone. Persons who had been talking gaily
and feeling quite well complained of feeling a swelling on the throat or
a little sickness, and in an hour they were dead. Sometimes it began by
a swelling that came under the a