第39章 Part 3(17)

It pleased God that I was still spared,and very hearty and sound in health,but very impatient of being pent up within doors without air,as I had been for fourteen days or thereabouts;and I could not restrain myself,but I would go to carry a letter for my brother to the post-house.Then it was indeed that I observed a profound silence in the streets.When I came to the post-house,as I went to put in my letter Isaw a man stand in one corner of the yard and talking to another at a window,and a third had opened a door belonging to the office.In the middle of the yard lay a small leather purse with two keys hanging at it,with money in it,but nobody would meddle with it.I asked how long it had lain there;the man at the window said it had lain almost an hour,but that they had not meddled with it,because they did not know but the person who dropped it might come back to look for it.I had no such need of money,nor was the sum so big that I had any inclination to meddle with it,or to get the money at the hazard it might be attended with;so I seemed to go away,when the man who had opened the door said he would take it up,but so that if the right owner came for it he should be sure to have it.So he went in and fetched a pail of water and set it down hard by the purse,then went again and fetch some gunpowder,and cast a good deal of powder upon the purse,and then made a train from that which he had thrown loose upon the purse.The train reached about two yards.After this he goes in a third time and fetches out a pair of tongs red hot,and which he had prepared,I suppose,on purpose;and first setting fire to the train of powder,that singed the purse and also smoked the air sufficiently.But he was not content with that,but he then takes up the purse with the tongs,holding it so long till the tongs burnt through the purse,and then he shook the money out into the pail of water,so he carried it in.The money,as I remember,was about thirteen shilling and some smooth groats and brass farthings.

There might perhaps have been several poor people,as I have observed above,that would have been hardy enough to have ventured for the sake of the money;but you may easily see by what I have observed that the few people who were spared were very careful of themselves at that time when the distress was so exceeding great.

Much about the same time I walked out into the fields towards Bow;for I had a great mind to see how things were managed in the river and among the ships;and as I had some concern in shipping,I had a notion that it had been one of the best ways of securing one's self from the infection to have retired into a ship;and musing how to satisfy my curiosity in that point,I turned away over the fields from Bow to Bromley,and down to Blackwall to the stairs which are there for landing or taking water.

Here I saw a poor man walking on the bank,or sea-wall,as they call it,by himself.I walked a while also about,seeing the houses all shut up.At last I fell into some talk,at a distance,with this poor man;first I asked him how people did thereabouts.'Alas,sir!'says he,'almost desolate;all dead or sick.Here are very few families in this part,or in that village'(pointing at Poplar),'where half of them are not dead already,and the rest sick.'Then he pointing to one house,'There they are all dead',said he,'and the house stands open;nobody dares go into it.A poor thief',says he,'ventured in to steal something,but he paid dear for his theft,for he was carried to the churchyard too last night.'

Then he pointed to several other houses.'There',says he.'they are all dead,the man and his wife,and five children.There',says he,'they are shut up;you see a watchman at the door';and so of other houses.

'Why,'says I,'what do you here all alone?''Why,'says he,'I am a poor,desolate man;it has pleased God I am not yet visited,though my family is,and one of my children dead.''How do you mean,then,'said I,'that you are not visited?''Why,'says he,'that's my house'(pointing to a very little,low-boarded house),'and there my poor wife and two children live,'said he,'if they may be said to live,for my wife and one of the children are visited,but I do not come at them.'And with that word I saw the tears run very plentifully down his face;and so they did down mine too,I assure you.