ment to herself and to her husband.

After this mistress had gone, Lilly lived very comfortably, his 'master
having a great affection' for him; and also a great confidence in him,
it seems; for when the plague (1625) began to rage in London, the master
went for safety into Leicestershire, leaving Lilly and a fellow servant
to keep the house, in which was much money and plate, belonging to his
master and others. Lilly was faithful to his charge in this fearful
time, and kept himself cheerful by amusements. 'I bought a bass viol,
and got a master to instruct me; the intervals of time I spent in
bowling in Lincoln's Inn Fields with Watt, the cobbler, Dick, the
blacksmith, and such-like companions.' Nor did he neglect more serious
business, but attended divine service at the church of St. Clement
Danes, where two ministers died in this time; but the third, Mr.
Whitacre, 'escaped not only then, but all contagion following,' though
he 'buried all manner of people, whether they died of the plague or
not,' and 'was given to drink, so that he seldom could preach more than
one quarter of an hour at a time.' This year of plague was indeed a
fearful one in London, and Lilly says elsewhere, 'I do well remember
this accident, that going in July, 1625, about half an hour after six in
the morning, to St. Antholine's church, I met only three persons on the
way, from my house over against Strand bridge, till I came there; so few
people were there alive and the streets so unfrequented.' 'About fifty
thousand people died that year;' but Lilly escaped death, though his
'conversation was daily with the infected.'[2]

Master Wright did not continue long a widower, but took to himself
another wife, and a younger, who was of 'brown ruddy complexion,' and of
better disposition than her predecessor in the household. Master Wright
was probably a happy man for a time; but only for a short time; for in
May, 1627, he died, and the estate, by agreement of the parties in it,
was assigned to Lilly for payment of its debts. The trust was not
misplaced; the debts were all paid, and the remainder of the estate,
except an annuity of twenty pounds, which his master had settled on
Lilly, he returned to the executors.

Mistress Wright, the widow, 'who had twice married old men,' had now
many suitors; 'old men, whom she declined; some gentlemen of decayed
fortunes, whom she liked not, for she was covetous and sparing;'
'however, all her talk was of husbands,'