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left a melancholy void in my heart, which was more painful, if poſſible, than any fear. But I was not long ſenſible of that pain. My children were scarce laid in the grave, when the fever seized myself with such violence, that I soon loſt my senses, nor recovered them for above a month; and then only to feel the greateſt wretchedness, that was ever heaped upon a human creature.
The expence of my children’s, and my own illness, had not only exhauſted all the money I had raised on the anticipation of my half-pay, but also obliged my wife to mortgage several of our beſt effects. Such a resourse never escapes the watchful eyes of people who keep lodging-houses. Our landlady no sooner perceived it, than ſhe seized upon the reſt, and then turned us out, the moment I could be removed without inſtant death.
In this ſituation, I muſt have periſhed in the ſtreets, had not a poor woman, whom my wife had been obliged to call in to her aſſiſtance when I ſickened, ſhared with us her habitation, in which you found us, as ſhe alſo did the earnings of her daily labour, till a chairman who was carrying a beau to a ball, threw her down with such violence, for not making haſte enough out of his way, that ſhe broke her leg, and was obliged to be taken to an hospital.
