e in; that is to say,
before they were (I mean some of them) severely punished for their
neglect, failing in their duty, and letting people who were under their
care slip away, or conniving at their going abroad, whether sick or
well. But after they saw the officers appointed to examine into their
conduct were resolved to have them do their duty, or be punished for the
omission, they were more exact, and the people were strictly restrained;
which was a thing they took so ill, and bore so impatiently, that their
discontents can hardly be described; but there was an absolute necessity
for it, that must be confessed, unless some other measures had been
timely entered upon, and it was too late for that.

Had not this particular of the sick being restrained as above been our
case at that time, London would have been the most dreadful place that
ever was in the world. There would, for aught I know, have as many
people died in the streets as died in their houses: for when the
distemper was at its height, it generally made them raving and
delirious; and when they were so, they would never be persuaded to keep
in their beds but by force; and many who were not tied threw themselves
out of windows when they found they could not get leave to go out of
their doors.

It was for want of people conversing one with another in this time of
calamity, that it was impossible any particular person could come at the
knowledge of all the extraordinary cases that occurred in different
families; and particularly, I believe it was never known to this day how
many people in their deliriums drowned themselves in the Thames, and in
the river which runs from the marshes by Hackney, which we generally
called Ware River or Hackney River. As to those which were set down in
the weekly bill, they were indeed few. Nor could it be known of any of
those, whether they drowned themselves by accident or not; but I believe
I might reckon up more who, within the compass of my knowledge or
observation, really drowned themselves in that year than are put down in
the bill of all put together, for many of the bodies were never found
who yet were known to be lost; and the like in other methods of
self-destruction. There was also one man in or about Whitecross Street
burnt himself to death in his bed. Some said it was done by himself,
others that it was by the treachery of the nurse that attended him; but
that he had the plague upon him, was agreed by all.

It was a