The watchman consented to that, and went and fetched a nurse, as
he was appointed, and brought her to them the same evening. During
this interval the master of the house took his opportunity to break a
large hole through his shop into a bulk or stall, where formerly a
cobbler had sat, before or under his shop-window; but the tenant, as
may be supposed at such a dismal time as that, was dead or removed,
and so he had the key in his own keeping. Having made his way into
this stall, which he could not have done if the man had been at the
door, the noise he was obliged to make being such as would have
alarmed the watchman; I say, having made his way into this stall, he
sat still till the watchman returned with the nurse, and all the next day
also. But the night following, having contrived to send the watchman
of another trifling errand, which, as I take it, was to an apothecary’s
for a plaister for the maid, which he was to stay for the making up, or
some other such errand that might secure his staying some time; in
that time he conveyed himself and all his family out of the house, and
left the nurse and the watchman to bury the poor wench – that is,
throw her into the cart – and take care of the house.
I could give a great many such stories as these, diverting enough,
which in the long course of that dismal year I met with – that is, heard
of – and which are very certain to be true, or very near the truth; that is
to say, true in the general: for no man could at such a time learn all
the particulars. There was likewise violence used with the watchmen,
as was reported, in abundance of places; and I believe that from the
beginning of the visitation to the end, there was not less than eighteen
or twenty of them killed, or so wounded as to be taken up for dead,
which was supposed to be done by the people in the infected houses
which were shut up, and where they attempted to come out and were opposed.
Nor, indeed, could less be expected, for here were so many prisons
in the town as there were houses shut up; and as the people shut up or
imprisoned so were guilty of no crime, only shut up because
miserable, it was really the more intolerable to them.
It had also this difference, that every prison, as we may call it, had
but one jailer, and as he had the whole house to guard, and that many
houses were so situated as that they had several ways out, some more,
some less, and some into several streets, it was impossible for one
man so to guard all the passages as to prevent the escape of people
made desperate by the fright of their circumstances, by the resentment
of their usage, or by the raging of the distemper itself; so that they
would talk to the watchman on one side of the house, while the family
made their escape at another.
For example, in Coleman Street there are abundance of alleys, as
appears still. A house was shut up in that they call White’s Alley;
and this house had a back-window, not a door, into a court which had a
passage into Bell Alley. A watchman was set by the constable at the
door of this house, and there he stood, or his comrade, night and day,
while the family went all away in the evening out at that window into the
court, and left the poor fellows warding and watching for near a fortnight.
Not far from the same place they blew up a watchman with
gunpowder, and burned the poor fellow dreadfully; and while he made
hideous cries, and nobody would venture to come near to help him,
the whole family that were able to stir got out at the windows one
storey high, two that were left sick calling out for help. Care was
taken to give them nurses to look after them, but the persons fled were