rning to others to keep
away, and it must have been very sad to see these long red crosses on so
many doors, with the grass-grown street in front of the houses, and the
slow plague-cart going down the street.

Another rule was that if anyone had a case of the plague within his
house, he and all his household must be shut up indoors for forty days
for fear of carrying the infection; but many people hated this so much
that they used to hide the cases of the plague when they happened, and
pretend that everyone was alive and well in their houses. When the
police-officers found this out they used to visit the houses, and if
they found anyone sick in one of them they would carry him or her off to
a hospital called a pest-house, where all the sick could be together. If
it is true what we read of these houses, it must have been almost worse
to go there than to die. The smells and sights were so awful, and the
shrieks of the poor wretches who had been seized with the plague were so
terrifying, that there was not much chance of anyone who went there
recovering.

The people who were forced to stay in London, either because they had no
money to go away or nowhere else to go to, used to meet in St. Paul's
Cathedral and ask one another the news. This was not the same cathedral
that is standing now, but one that was afterwards burnt in the Great
Fire. The long aisle was called Paul's walk, and here in better times
there were stalls for the sale of ribbons and laces and many other
things, and people laughed and talked and strolled up and down, just as
if it were a street and not a church at all. Now, in the plague time
most of the stalls were shut, and the people no longer came to buy, but
to ask in hushed voices how many had died last week, and if there were
any sign that this awful disease was going to stop. It is almost
impossible to believe, but it is true, that thieves were very busy then.
They used actually to go into the houses deserted by their owners, or
left because someone had died there of the plague, and steal things,
without minding the risk of infection.

The country people soon stopped bringing in fresh milk and vegetables,
butter and eggs from the country, because they dared not come into the
town; and so it was difficult to get these things at all, and those who
were in London were worse off than ever, and in danger of starving.

We can imagine children crying for bread, and their mother going out at
last to try t