Cherry seeking her father
Instead of which, I only said as I came up to him, “I’m going to look for my Father, Master Princeps.”
“Well,” says he, “I wish you may find him with all my Heart, but it seems like looking for a Pin in a Hayfield.—Perhaps he’ll return while you are away.... Take Care where you go; the Streets and Lanes are dangerous——”
There were People paying Toll; and while I was waiting to pass, I heard one Man ask another if he had seen the great Plague-pit dug in Aldgate, forty Feet long, and twenty Feet deep; adding, he believed many People that were picked up in the Streets were cast into it before it was well known if they were dead or alive.
I darted through the Toll-gate the Moment it was clear, and made for Cheapside. Oh! how awful the Change, during a few Weeks! Not a Creature stirring, where lately all had been alive.—At the Turn of a Lane I met a Man wheeling a dead Person in a Hand-barrow, and turning his own Head aside. Houses were deserted or silent, marked with the fatal red Cross. Within one, I heard much wailing and sobbing. At length I reached Mark’s House. ’Twas all shut up!—and a Watchman sat smoking on the Door-step. He said, “Young Woman, what do you want?” I said, “I want to speak to Mark Blenkinsop.” ... He said, “Nobody must go out or in—the House is under Visitation.”—My Heart sank when I remembered Mark’s Forebodings of himself, and I said, “Is he dead?” “I know not whether he be dead or no,” replied the Watchman; “a Maid-servant was put into the Cart the Night before last, and a ’Prentice the Night before that.—Since then, they’ve kept mighty quiet, and asked for Nothing, though I’ve rung the House-bell two or three Times. But the Night-watch told me that a Woman put her Head out of Window during the Night, and called out, ‘Oh! Death, Death, Death!’ three several Times.”
I said, “Ring the Bell again!”
He did so, and pulled it so violently this Time, that the Wire broke. We gave each other a blank Look.
“See!” said I, “there’s a Window open on the Second Story——”
“’Tis where the Woman put out her Head and screeched, during the Night,” said he.