Many more were the pious and comfortable words which he spake, for he did well note how that my spirits were greatly bowed down with the sense of my own forlorn condition. I returned to my poor lodging in Botolph Court, Bishopsgate, and looking from the window upon my little Church, wherein I had that afternoon taken leave of my dear people, I offered a prayer unto the Good Shepherd, that he would still find healthful pasture and a faithful keeper for this remnant of his flock, now left destitute and forlorn in the wilderness. And yet this separation from my charge, and removal from London, though very grievous at the time, led unto a most notable circumstance in my life, which I will here presently set down. Finding from what took place at Mr. Beale's in Hatton Garden, where Dr. Bates and others were broken in upon by the military, whilst praying with the sick child of good Mr. Beale, that the silenced ministers would not be allowed any more to preach, or meet in private for devotional exercises, I determined at once to leave London; and was led, by the providence of God, to the house of a pious gentleman of great repute, at Colchester in Essex, by name Zedekiah Dalton, whom it pleased to appoint me tutor to his children, and I was so engaged, as I remember, when the

But

awful Pestilence raged in London during the year 1665; at which time my patron's son, Neville Dalton, was a student in one of the Courts of Law. It had been customary for us to receive tidings of him regularly by the letter-carriers, during the spring and summer; but when that fearful Pestilence had reached its height there came no farther intelligence; and it had altogether ceased. Hereupon my patron himself would fain have journeyed to London, for he was in much affliction, in order to seek out his son; if so be the Lord had spared him alive in such a time of almost universal sickness and death. from this step both the good Mistress Dalton and myself did dissuade him; yet, nevertheless, finding the accounts from London still more alarming towards the end of August, and witnessing, as I did, the sore distress and intolerable suspense of the worthy family, I determined, after asking counsel of the Lord, to journey forthwith to the great City in their behalf. I was moved to this by divers considerations, and was marvellously encouraged to persevere by several sweet passages of Holy-Writ; especially I did remember that "the Angel of the Lord encampeth around them that fear him," and delivereth them from "the Pestilence that walketh in darkness, and from the destruction that wasteth at noonday."

It was, therefore, on the 21st of August, about six o'clock in the evening, that, after having commended myself unto the Lord's protection whilst engaged on this errand of mercy, I embraced the weeping members of this good family, and set forth from Colchester. I can recal, even now, and as freshly as if it were an event but of yesterday, what my feelings were as I journeyed along. The evening was calm and beautiful, the air pure and balmy, and each little village through which I passed seemed to repose peacefully in the bright glow of the setting sun. In my own thoughts I contrasted the serene and lovely looks of nature around me, with the house of sorrow whence I had departed, and the Plaguedoomed City whither I was speeding; wherein the tainted air, laden with death, was carrying desolation into every dwelling. Then did my spirit become disquieted within me, and, gazing on the fields of corn, now ripe for the sickle, methought the time of my gathering in was also come, and haply might arrive, even before the wheat from those goodly fields should be laid up in the garner.

But, Ah me! never, never shall I forget the sight which I beheld, when, upon the third evening after my departure, I drew near to the Village of Bow, distant but a few miles from London. The roads were

many

blocked and divers kinds of carwith up riages laden with goods, in which were the terrified owners, with their wives and children; some weeping bitterly, some giving themselves up unto the wildest expressions of grief, and others in a state of profound abstraction and melancholy; whilst all, by the haggardness of their looks, proclaimed the mighty spread and power of that direful scourge, from the which they were thus affrightedly hurrying away. There was, moreover, a vast multitude on foot, yet I noted that each person, or rather each party, did strive to avoid intermingling with the other; and some, too, were in so weak a state, arising perhaps from terror, that, being deserted by their company, they had sunken down by the road side, or in the neighbouring fields, waiting until death should release them from their sufferings. I know not how I should have passed through this hapless throng, had I not espied one of the City provision-carts going townwards, the driver of which, for small payment, did allow me to get therein; and I discovered that constables, and others appointed by the City, were placed in various parts of the road to remove all obstructions, in order that these carts should pass freely. I alighted, and then proceeded on my way a-foot;

in which progress I could not but note how that the public road looked, at Whitechapel, more like a green field than a street of concourse, the grass having grown not only on the lower part near the church, but on that part also which was paved.

I shall not here set down the lamentable cries which ever and anon assailed my ears as I pursued my course to Bishopsgate-some crying out for clergymen to come and pray with them; others calling upon God for pardon and mercy, and aloud confessing their sins; and all either lamenting their own sickness, or mourning over others, who were but newly dead. Nor shall I now attempt to consider the words uttered by that poor maniac whom I met at Aldgate,-one Solomon Eagle, as he was called,-who went about denouncing yet farther judgment upon the City. Truly, his appearance and manner were appalling, for he was of large stature, having hideous features now distorted by phrenzy, and a loud, sepulchral voice, rendered hoarse and horrible by incessant crying out to the multitude. He had, moreover, clothed himself in sackcloth, and carried upon his head a pan of burning charcoal. As he hurried wildly along, proclaiming God's wrath upon a sinful people, and prophesying of greater and greater woes that were