up, the greater part of them having a red cross, of a foot long, in the middle of the door; over which was written: "Lord have mercy upon us !" signifying that it had been visited by the examiners, and declared to be infected. To every such door, a large outside padlock was affixed, to prevent the escape of the diseased wretches within, as well as all access to them from without; a watchman being appointed to keep guard at the door, and minister to the wants of the sufferers. Even the animal crea tion seemed to have partaken of the general doom; not a dog or a cat was to be seen; they had all been destroyed by order of the magistrates, for fear of their conveying the infection.

In his ignorance of the city, Jocelyn experienced considerable difficulty in finding the street he required. Several, to whom he had applied, had taken no other notice of his inquiry, than to quicken their pace, with a look of dismay; smelling at the same time to their preventives with At length he saw two

an additional eagerness.

persons approaching, holding red rods in their hands, whose more respectable appearance promised a more courteous attention to his request: but he was doomed to be again disappointed.— "See you not the red wand?" said one of them, in answer to his inquiry; " and know you not that we are a surgeon and an examiner? Are you weary of life, that you incur the risk of contagion, by stopping us on the highway? Pass on! pass on." In this perplexity, since he could gain no information from the people in the streets, he looked about for some of the few houses that still remained open, intending to enter one of them and ask his way. Of these he had but little choice. They were mostly quack-doctors' shops, plastered over with notices of " Infallible Preventives against Plague; the only true Plague-water; the Incomparable Drink; the Royal Antidote," and similar flourishes: or shabby abodes, with the sign of Merlin, Mother Shipton, or Friar Bacon's Brazen Head; and inscriptions beneath: "Here lives a fortune-tel

ler;" "Here lives an astrologer;"

may have your nativity calculated."

66 Here you

While Jocelyn was gazing at a cognizance of the latter description, a cadaverous-looking fellow, in a velvet jacket, a band, and a black cloak, came to the door, and invited him to walk in; offering to tell him, for a shilling, whether he was to die or not of the plague.

"If I may judge from your own appearance, my good friend," said Jocelyn, "you can hardly answer favourably for yourself. Here is your shilling, but I want no higher specimen of your skill than that you will tell me the way to Aldersgate Street." This information was correctly furnished, and he left the egregious wizard wondering more at the avarice which could lead him to expose his life for a shilling, than at the delusion of the diseased wretches, who caught at straws as they were sinking into the grave,

* It was observed that the greater number of these astrologers and quack conjurers perished, as was indeed to be expected, from their more frequent intercourse with the infected.

and could not, perhaps, better expend that trifling sum than in the purchase of a few hours' hope. Following the directions he had received, he turned out of Cheapside, which he had scarcely quitted, when he encountered an apparently delirious creature, naked from the waist upwards, walking with a swift pace, his eyes fixed, a countenance full of horror, and repeatedly exclaiming in a voice of agony : "O the great and dreadful God!" From the information of a watchman, who proved more communicative than the rest of his brethren, Jocelyn learned that this poor wretch continued this dismal cry night and day, and that he was never seen to stop, or rest, or take any sustenance. Oppressed in spirits, and not insensible to the risk he was running by thus walking in the midst of the pestilence, he at length saw with satisfaction the name of Aldersgate Street written upon the corner of a house; but his feelings were doomed to a severer shock in this quarter than any he had hitherto experienced. While he was yet

gazing upon the house, the casement was suddenly opened by a female of elegant appearance, who uttered three frightful screeches, and then cried: "Oh! death! death! death!" in a tone that thrilled every drop of blood in his veins: after which, she struck her hands distractedly together, and reeled backwards into the room! Her shrieks echoed hollowly through the wide street, in which there was not at that moment a soul moving except Jocelyn. No other casement was opened-no notice was taken of her appalling shrieks: people were too much accustomed to such sounds of agony, to pay them more than a momentary attention.

Aghast and horror-stricken he passed on, in vain looking for some one who might inform him which was Alderman Staunton's house, until a watchman, returning to a door which he had momentarily quitted, pointed to a large mansion on the opposite side of the way; adding that the inquirer must be a stranger indeed in that part of London, not to know where Master Staunton