Page:A Journal of the Plague Year (1722).djvu/83

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the PLAGUE.
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convinced that was impractible; I ſay, no ſooner did he ſee the Sight, but he cry'd out aloud unable to contain himſelf; I could not hear what he ſaid, but he went backward two or three Steps, and fell down in a Swoon: the Buryers ran to him and took him up, and in a little While he came to himſelf, and they led him away to the Pye-Taverne over-againſt the End of Houndſditch, where, it ſeems, the Man was known, and where they took care of him. He look'd into the Pit again, as he went away, but the Buriers had covered the Bodies ſo immediately with throwing in Earth, that tho' there was Light enough, for there were Lantherns and Candles in them, plac'd all Night round the Sides of the Pit, upon the Heaps of Earth, ſeven or eight, or perhaps more, yet nothing could be ſeen.

This was a mournful Scene indeed, and affected me almoſt as much as the reſt; but the other was awful, and full of Terror, the Cart had in it ſixteen or ſeventeen Bodies, ſome were wrapt up in Linen Sheets, ſome in Rugs, ſome little other than naked, or ſo looſe, that what Covering they had, fell from them, in the ſhooting out of the Cart, and they fell quite naked among the reſt; but the Matter was not much to them, or the Indecency much to any one elſe, ſeeing they were all dead, and were to be huddled together into the common Grave of Mankind, as we may call it, for here was no Difference made, but Poor and Rich went together; there was no other way of Burials, neither was it poſſible there ſhould, for Coffins were not to be had for the prodigious Numbers that fell in ſuch a Calamity as this.

It was reported by way of Scandal upon the Buriers, that if any Corpſe was delivered to them, decently wound up as we call'd it then, in a Winding Sheet Ty'd over the Head and Feet, whichsome