the very streets whenever they came so much as
to market; that they were not yet secure from being visited themselves,
and that, as he heard, Waltham was already; that they would think it
very hard that when any of them fled for fear before they were touched,
they should be denied the liberty of lying so much as in the open
fields.

The Epping men told them again, that they, indeed, said they were sound
and free from the infection, but that they had no assurance of it; and
that it was reported that there had been a great rabble of people at
Walthamstow, who made such pretences of being sound as they did, but
that they threatened to plunder the town and force their way, whether
the parish officers would or no; that there were near two hundred
of them, and had arms and tents like Low Country soldiers; that they
extorted provisions from the town, by threatening them with living upon
them at free quarter, showing their arms, and talking in the language
of soldiers; and that several of them being gone away toward Rumford and
Brentwood, the country had been infected by them, and the plague spread
into both those large towns, so that the people durst not go to market
there as usual; that it was very likely they were some of that party;
and if so, they deserved to be sent to the county jail, and be secured
till they had made satisfaction for the damage they had done, and for
the terror and fright they had put the country into.

John answered that what other people had done was nothing to them; that
they assured them they were all of one company; that they had never been
more in number than they saw them at that time (which, by the way, was
very true); that they came out in two separate companies, but joined by
the way, their cases being the same; that they were ready to give what
account of themselves anybody could desire of them, and to give in their
names and places of abode, that so they might be called to an account
for any disorder that they might be guilty of; that the townsmen might
see they were content to live hardly, and only desired a little room to
breathe in on the forest where it was wholesome; for where it was not
they could not stay, and would decamp if they found it otherwise there.

'But,' said the townsmen, 'we have a great charge of poor upon our hands
already, and we must take care not to increase it; we suppose you can
give us no security against your being chargeable to our parish and to
the inhabitants