t-sinking to me;
and had it not been for my plan of writing this history, I know not how
I could have borne it. When it grew dusk I ventured to look out at a
front window to see if my friends were coming; but what I saw was the
light of torches coming up the street, which was the sign of a funeral,
it being ordered that people should only bury at night; and presently
came by a coffin borne of four, and a great many people following; for
it was wonderful how people crowded to funerals at this time, as if
desperate of their lives. They stopt suddenly, to my terror, right in
front of my window; but it was because of another crowd meeting them,
and in its midst a tall man, moving very swiftly, and going straight
before him. He was stript to the waist; and I thought at first that the
hair of his head was all in a flame of fire, but it was a chafing-dish
of burning brimstone that he had set upon his head, and which glared
through the darkness. As he met the coffin he made a stand, and looked
upon it.

[Illustration: 'I think I myself saw one of these strange creatures.']

'Yet one more,' he said, in a deep hoarse voice,--'one more has fallen
in his sins! but ye do not repent. Woe, woe, woe to this unfaithful
city!' and he went on again directly, but continued to cry 'Woe, woe!'
as long as I could hear him; the people running after and around him
could scarce keep up with his swift pace. Those who were bearing and
following the coffin had seemed struck with horror; but now they got
into order again; and I heard one near the window bidding them
sneeringly never to heed a mad Quaker, while another said aloud, 'I
marvel such an evil-boding fool is left at large, when far quieter folks
of his sort lie rotting in prison;' words which made me fain to hear
more; but the men all moved off, and I had scarce seen their torches go
twinkling away into darkness, when I heard the signal at the back door,
and hurried joyfully to let in my friends, who had been delayed by
meeting the funeral; but they had missed the other strange spectacle.

As I remember, this was the second Saturday we spent in town; and here I
may say that almost every Lord's Day which found us in our dismal abode,
we two made our way to some church at a good distance, and there joined
in worship.

I never saw churches more crowded, worshippers more devout, ministers
more fervent. We understood by what we heard that not a few clergymen
were dead of the Plague, and othe