bat the fiend--his side
unguarded, his toils unshared--infection might even reach him, and he die
unattended and alone. By day and night these thoughts pursued me. I
resolved to visit London, to see him; to quiet these agonizing throes by
the sweet medicine of hope, or the opiate of despair.

It was not until I arrived at Brentford, that I perceived much change in
the face of the country. The better sort of houses were shut up; the busy
trade of the town palsied; there was an air of anxiety among the few
passengers I met, and they looked wonderingly at my carriage--the first
they had seen pass towards London, since pestilence sat on its high places,
and possessed its busy streets. I met several funerals; they were slenderly
attended by mourners, and were regarded by the spectators as omens of
direst import. Some gazed on these processions with wild eagerness--
others fled timidly--some wept aloud.

Adrian's chief endeavour, after the immediate succour of the sick, had been
to disguise the symptoms and progress of the plague from the inhabitants of
London. He knew that fear and melancholy forebodings were powerful
assistants to disease; that desponding and brooding care rendered the
physical nature of man peculiarly susceptible of infection. No unseemly
sights were therefore discernible: the shops were in general open, the
concourse of passengers in some degree kept up. But although the appearance
of an infected town was avoided, to me, who had not beheld it since the
commencement of the visitation, London appeared sufficiently changed. There
were no carriages, and grass had sprung high in the streets; the houses had
a desolate look; most of the shutters were closed; and there was a ghast
and frightened stare in the persons I met, very different from the usual
business-like demeanour of the Londoners. My solitary carriage attracted
notice, as it rattled along towards the Protectoral Palace--and the
fashionable streets leading to it wore a still more dreary and deserted
appearance. I found Adrian's anti-chamber crowded--it was his hour for
giving audience. I was unwilling to disturb his labours, and waited,
watching the ingress and egress of the petitioners. They consisted of
people of the middling and lower classes of society, whose means of
subsistence failed with the cessation of trade, and of the busy spirit of
money-making in all its branches, peculiar to our country. There was an air
of anxiety, sometimes of terror