ngels of mercy!" sobbed the poor
woman, who heard their words, and knowing both Dinah and Janet,
understood something of the situation, "for we be perishing like
sheep here in this place, shut away from all, and with never a
nurse to come nigh us. There be some rough fellows placed outside
the houses to see that none go in or out, and perchance they do
their best to find nurses; but at such a time as this it is small
wonder if ofttimes none are to be found. And some they have brought
are worse than none. The Lord protect us from the tender mercies of
such!"

The narrow court into which they now turned was cool in comparison
with the sunny street; but there was nothing refreshing in the
coolness, for fumes of every sort exhaled from the houses, and at
the far end there burned a fire of resinous pine logs, the smoke
from which, when it rolled down the court, was almost choking.

"They say it will check the spread of the distemper to the streets
beyond," said the woman, "but methinks it does as much harm as
good. If the Lord help us not, we be all dead men. The cart took
away a score or more of corpses last night. Pray Heaven it take not
away my poor husband tonight!"

The bearer of the handcart stopped at the door indicated by the
woman, and lifted the stricken man in his arms. It was one of the
very few doors all down that street which did not bear the ominous
red cross.

As Gertrude looked up and down the court her heart sank within her
for pity. The houses were closed. Watchers lounged at the doors,
drinking and smoking and jesting together, being by this time
recklessly and brutally hardened to their office. They knew not
from day to day when their own turn might come; but this knowledge
seemed to have an evil rather than a sobering effect upon them.

The better sort of watchmen were employed, as a rule, to keep the
better sort of houses. When these crowded courts and alleys were
attacked, the authorities had to send whom they could rather than
whom they would. Indefatigable and courageously as they worked, the
magnitude of the calamity was such that it taxed their resources to
the utmost; and had it not been for the bountiful supplies of money
sent in by charitable people, from the king downwards, for the
relief of the city in this time of dire need, thousands must have
perished from actual want, as well as those who fell victims to the
plague itself. Yet do as these brave and devoted men could, the
suffering