United States or Somalia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
On recovering from the terrible shock I had received, I found myself stretched upon a bed in a house whither I had been conveyed by Rainbird the watchman, who had discovered me lying in a state of insensibility in the street. For nearly a week I continued delirious, and should, probably, have lost my senses altogether but for the attentions of the watchman.
"He helps himself without scruple to the clothes, goods, and other property, of all who die of the pestilence; and after ransacking their houses, conveys his plunder in the dead-cart to his own dwelling." "In Saint Paul's?" asked Leonard. "No a large house in Nicholas-lane, once belonging to a wealthy merchant, who perished, with his family, of the plague," replied Rainbird.
But for his passion for his horrible calling there is no necessity for him to follow it, for he is now one of the richest men in London." "He must have amassed his riches by robbery, then," remarked Leonard. "True," returned Rainbird.
"'The streets shall be covered with grass, and the living shall not be able to bury their dead, so it ran," said Rainbird. "And it has come to pass. Not a carriage of any description, save the dead-cart, is to be seen in the broadest streets of London, which are now as green as the fields without her walls, and as silent as the grave itself. Terrible times, as I said before terrible times!
However, I bear no malice, and if I did, this is not a time to rip up old quarrels." "You are right, friend," returned Leonard. "The few of us left ought to be in charity with each other." "Truly, ought we," rejoined Rainbird. "For my own part, I have seen so much misery within the last few weeks, that my disposition is wholly changed.
He then hurried forward, but, to his great disappointment, found the door locked. Anxious to get into the house without alarming those who had preceded him, he glanced at the windows; but the shutters were closed and strongly barred. While hesitating what to do, Rainbird came up, and guessing his wishes, told him there was a door at the back of the house by which he might probably gain admittance.
"There is contagion enough in those clothes to infect a whole city," said Rainbird, who regarded them with different feelings. "I have half a mind to set fire to them." "It were a good deed to do so," returned Leonard; "but it must not be done now. Let us go upstairs. These are the only rooms below."
I will hasten to Doctor Hodges's residence, and if I should fail in meeting him, will not rest till I procure assistance elsewhere. Do not leave her till I return." Leonard readily gave a promise to the desired effect, and accompanying him to the door, told Rainbird what had happened.
"He has filled it from cellar to garret with the spoil he has obtained." "And how has he preserved it?" inquired the apprentice. "The plague has preserved it for him," replied Rainbird.
They then peeped into the scullery adjoining, and were about to retrace their steps, when Rainbird plucked Leonard's sleeve to call attention to a gleam of light issuing from a door which stood partly ajar, in a long narrow passage leading apparently to the cellars. "They are there," he said, in a whisper. "So I see," replied Leonard, in the same tone.
Word Of The Day