When spotted deaths ran armed through every street,
With poisoned darts, which not the good could shun,
The speedy could out-fly, or valiant meet.
St. 267. [p. 151.]
In 1665, the plague broke out in London with the most dreadful fury. In one year, upwards of 90,000 inhabitants were cut off by this frightful visitation. The citizens were driven into the country, and so desolate was the metropolis, through death and desertion, that the grass is said actually to have grown in Cheapside.
Thy threatnings, Lord, as thine, thou mayst revoke;
But, if immutable and fixed they stand,
Continue still thyself to give the stroke,
And let not foreign foes oppress thy land.—St. 270. [p. 151.]