themselves while they were pretending to save

others.

Not deriving any very great consolation or amusement from these specimens of her library, Jocelyn awaited with great impatience the arrival of her son. At that period of general panic, the smallest indisposition was contemnplated with misgiving and alarm; and his landlady could hardly speak for agitation when she informed him next morning, that one of the maid-servants had complained of head-ache and nausea, adding a devout prayer to Heaven that it might not prove the pestilence. Jocelyn conversed with the girl on the subject of her complaint, which appeared to him of a trifling nature, and which she herself treated às a momentary indisposition; but her mistress, whose apprehensions remained unabated, determined on calling in medical advice.

Early on the following morning the son returned, to whom his mother explained the promise she had made Jocelyn of lending his horse for a journey to Oxford, which he willingly confirmed, only stipulating that the animal

should rest till the morrow. On the evening of that day, our hero learned with infinite perturbation of mind, both on his landlady's account and his own, that the maid's complaint had been decidedly pronounced to be the plague; and as it was now evident that not a moment was to be lost, he put the most precious of his effects, together with the money he had borrowed, into a small travelling portmanteau, intending to rise with the morrow's sun, buckle the portmanteau to his horse's crupper, and turn his back upon the death-doomed city of London.

Long before the sun had appeared above the horizon, he was up and accoutred; and having slung his valise over his shoulders, and descended the stairs just as the dawn was breaking, and ere any other inmate of the house had arisen, he proceeded to the street-door, drew back the bolts, unlocked it, and attempted to let himself out. The door, however, refused to open; and while he was wondering what this might mean, a voice from the other side called

out to inquire what was wanting-" I want to pass out," cried Jocelyn.

"Out!" replied the voice-" Know you not that the examiner has put the red cross, and the Lord have mercy upon us!' on the door? It is padlocked up, and not a soul passes out except the nurse, while I am watchman!"

It is utterly impossible to describe the dismay that struck upon the heart of Jocelyn, courageous as it generally was, when he heard these doleful tidings. He had been previously exhilarated at the prospect of immediate escape .to the pure and renovating air of the country: and now to be shut up and imprisoned with infected people; to be uselessly exposed to all the horrors of this hideous pestilence, without being allowed to make a struggle for his life; to be condemned by this absurd regulation, and in the flower of his youth, to a miserable and inglorious death-it was a fate very, very, very dreadful to endure; and its unnecessary infliction was not less cruel and tyrannical. The latter feeling soon predominated over the for

mer; indignation superseded alarm; and resolving, in the vehemence of his resentment, to refuse obedience to this worst of all incarcerations, he determined to wait till the dusk of the evening, let himself down from one of the windows, and run the risk of losing his life in a scuffle with the watchmen, rather than tamely sacrifice it within the doors to the assaults of the pestilence.

Consoled by this decision, he returned to his own room, where he had not long remained, when he heard a cry of distress from one of the upper apartments; and upon calling to inquire the cause, was answered by one of the maids, that her fellow-servant was dead, and their mistress complained of being exceedingly ill. "Where is her son?" inquired Jocelyn. "He was absent from home when the house was padlocked up,” replied the maid, “and we have not heard of him since."

"Is there no one else in the house?" again inquired Jocelyn.

"Not a soul, but yourself," answered the

maid, "but we have sent for a nurse, and expect one this morning :" at which words she closed the door, and the conversation ceased.

However distressing it might be to leave the landlady and the maid in this piteous plight, he knew that any attendance or assistance that he might proffer would only endanger himself, without availing the sufferers; such offices, besides, would come with much more propriety from the expected nurse; and this rapid increase of the danger only confirmed him in his resolution of flying from it. Towards noon he heard the physician arrive, and go up-stairs, followed, not long after, by the nurse, who took her station in the landlady's room; but Jocelyn forbore from all inquiries, not expecting to receive any consolatory tidings, and anxious to avoid all communication with parties coming from an infected chamber. He had examined one of the windows, from which he calculated upon being able to let himself down without difficulty; but to guard against every possibility of mischance or disappointment, he provided himself with a stout