great care and caution shut themselves up, and kept retired, as it were,
from all mankind, and had by that means, under God's providence, been
preserved through all the heat of that infection.

This rash and foolish conduct of the people went so far, that the
ministers took notice to them of it, and laid before them both the folly
and danger of it; and this checked it a little, so that they grew more
cautious. But it had another effect, which they could not check: for as
the first rumor had spread, not over the city only, but into the
country, it had the like effect; and the people were so tired with being
so long from London, and so eager to come back, that they flocked to
town without fear or forecast, and began to show themselves in the
streets as if all the danger was over. It was indeed surprising to see
it; for though there died still from a thousand to eighteen hundred a
week, yet the people flocked to town as if all had been well.

The consequence of this was, that the bills increased again four hundred
the very first week in November; and, if I might believe the physicians,
there were above three thousand fell sick that week, most of them
newcomers too.

One John Cock, a barber in St. Martin's-le-Grand, was an eminent example
of this (I mean of the hasty return of the people when the plague was
abated). This John Cock had left the town with his whole family, and
locked up his house, and was gone into the country, as many others did;
and, finding the plague so decreased in November that there died but 905
per week of all diseases, he ventured home again. He had in his family
ten persons; that is to say, himself and wife, five children, two
apprentices, and a maidservant. He had not been returned to his house
above a week, and began to open his shop and carry on his trade, but the
distemper broke out in his family, and within about five days they all
died except one: that is to say, himself, his wife, all his five
children, and his two apprentices; and only the maid remained alive.

But the mercy of God was greater to the rest than we had reason to
expect; for the malignity, as I have said, of the distemper was spent,
the contagion was exhausted, and also the wintry weather came on apace,
and the air was clear and cold, with some sharp frosts; and this
increasing still, most of those that had fallen sick recovered, and the
health of the city began to return. There were indeed some returns of
the distemper, e