not the only good thing which was performed by that severe method.
On the other hand, the complaints and the murmurings were very
bitter against the thing itself. It would pierce the hearts of all that
came by to hear the piteous cries of those infected people, who, being
thus out of their understandings by the violence of their pain or the
heat of their blood, were either shut in or perhaps tied in their beds
and chairs, to prevent their doing themselves hurt – and who would
make a dreadful outcry at their being confined, and at their being not
permitted to die at large, as they called it, and as they would have
done before.
This running of distempered people about the streets was very
dismal, and the magistrates did their utmost to prevent it; but as it was
generally in the night and always sudden when such attempts were
made, the officers could not be at band to prevent it; and even when
any got out in the day, the officers appointed did not care to meddle
with them, because, as they were all grievously infected, to be sure,
when they were come to that height, so they were more than ordinarily
infectious, and it was one of the most dangerous things that could be
to touch them. On the other hand, they generally ran on, not knowing
what they did, till they dropped down stark dead, or till they had
exhausted their spirits so as that they would fall and then die in
perhaps half-an-hour or an hour; and, which was most piteous to hear,
they were sure to come to themselves entirely in that half-hour or
hour, and then to make most grievous and piercing cries and
lamentations in the deep, afflicting sense of the condition they were
in. This was much of it before the order for shutting up of houses was
strictly put in execution, for at first the watchmen were not so
vigorous and severe as they were afterward in the keeping the people
in; that is to say, before they were (I mean some of them) severely
punished for their neglect, failing in their duty, and letting people who
were under their care slip away, or conniving at their going abroad,
whether sick or well. But after they saw the officers appointed to
examine into their conduct were resolved to have them do their duty
or be punished for the omission, they were more exact, and the people
were strictly restrained; which was a thing they took so ill and bore so
impatiently that their discontents can hardly be described. But there
was an absolute necessity for it, that must be confessed, unless some
other measures had been timely entered upon, and it was too late for that.
Had not this particular (of the sick being restrained as above) been
our case at that time, London would have been the most dreadful
place that ever was in the world; there would, for aught I know, have
as many people died in the streets as died in their houses; for when the
distemper was at its height it generally made them raving and
delirious, and when they were so they would never be persuaded to
keep in their beds but by force; and many who were not tied threw
themselves out of windows when they found they could not get leave
to go out of their doors.
It was for want of people conversing one with another, in this time
of calamity, that it was impossible any particular person could come
at the knowledge of all the extraordinary cases that occurred in
different families; and particularly I believe it was never known to this
day how many people in their deliriums drowned themselves in the
Thames, and in the river which runs from the marshes by Hackney,
which we generally called Ware River, or Hackney River. As to those
which were set down in the weekly bill, they were indeed few; nor
could it be known of any of those whether they drowned themselves
by accident or not. But I believe I might reckon up more who within
the compass of my knowledge or observation really drowned