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and infection, most of them written by empirics, who had been swept away 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 contemplated with misgiving and alarm; and his landlady could hardly speak her agitation when she informed him next morning that one of the maidservants had complained of head-ach 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 as 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 portman

'teau 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 accoutered; 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!"

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It is utterly impossible to describe the dismay that struck 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 former; indignation super

seded 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 watchman, 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.

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« 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 her 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; F. 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 rope, long enough to serve his = purpose, even should he be compelled to try one of the back windows, which were considerably higher.

Evening seemed to be unusually long in arriving, but it at length approached; and as he sate in his chair, he watched the gathering gloom with the satisfaction of one who is about to escape from a hateful imprisonment, that was to be quickly terminated by a death, at which the soul recoils. At last it appeared dark enough to ensure his escape without detection; and he was about to spring from his seat, and hasten to the window, when he was seized with a sudden vertigo, accompanied with an inexpressible nausea and sickness, and fell backwards in his chair. After a few moments it seemed, in some degree, to pass away, and he again attempted to rise, but he felt such a sudden prostration of strength, that he found himself unable to stand without support, and utterly inadequate to the task of even walking across the room; so that he again sunk down in his chair, the agony of his disappointment being aggravated by the dreadful conviction that he was smitten by the plague.

His voice still remained to him, and, hearing some

one passing down the stairs, he called for help. It proved to be the nurse, a forbidding-looking hag, who shook her head when she saw him, told him the only thing he could do was to betake himself to his bed, which she assisted him in reaching, complained that she should have enough to attend to, since the second maid was ill as well as the mistress, and she was now likely to have the lodger upon her hands; and adding that she would send the doctor to him when he called next morning; she bade him keep himself quiet in his bed, and not ring the bell; and immediately quitted the apartment.

Nothing but absolute helplessness could have compelled him to obey this last injunction, for such was his combined horror of the disease, and of the villanous physiognomy of the beldame who was to have the nursing of him, that he would have thrown himself from the topmost window of the house, rather than remain in it, had his will been seconded by his ability. But he continued powerless as a child, his body suffering from fever, giddiness, and intense head-ach, while his mind was a prey to forebodings that soon sank his spirit into the deepest despondency. Lying upon his bed in this forlorn plight, he heard, as night approached, the rumbling of the revolting cart, the tolling of the bell, and the doleful cry of « Bring out your dead!" It stopped at the door of the house; one of the buriers helped the nurse to carry down the dead body of the maid; he heard it thrown in, the bell again began ringing, and the vehicle was driven on, though the horrid sounds seemed to be still vibrating in his ears,

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