"Ah, Master Wentworth," remarked the captain of the guard, who dwelt not far from us in St. Thomas's Street, and whose acquaintance I had made some time back, "our town hath other enemies to fight besides the Hollanders!"
"Oh!" I ejaculated, in a manner that implied that I wanted to be further enlightened.
"Yes, 'tis true. The Dutchmen we can fight man to man in a straightforward manner, but our latest foe is not to be conquered by strength of arms--'tis the plague!"
"The plague?"
"Yea. From Southampton comes news that the plague is in that town, and eight houses are shut up. Sir Thomas Middleton hath given orders that the shipwrights who dwell there are not to be allowed to go home, and those already living there are not to be readmitted to the dockyard. Furthermore, the poor there will not suffer the rich to leave, neither doth our governor permit ships from Southampton to land their cargoes here."
Here was grave news. I hurried homewards and communicated the captain's information to my uncle. He shook his head sorrowfully.
"The plague is rampant in London. In Chichester eleven persons have died. At Newport there have been two cases, yet in this town we are free, though in dire straits. Still, Aubrey, let not a word escape to alarm your aunt. I must see that we lay in a goodly store of brimstone."
Throughout the long sultry summer we were mercifully preserved from the contagion; then, as autumn came, and still the plague did not appear amongst us, people began to think that with the approach of the cold weather all danger was past.
But this was not the case. Winter drew on, and with it the cold was intense, a sharp frost lasting for over six weeks.
Towards the end of December the Essex, man-of-war, came into port, and hardly had she moored alongside the jetty when the report spread about that she was infected with the dread disease. Immediately there was a panic amongst the workmen, and, throwing down their tools, they betook themselves off, vowing that neither the king nor the king's enemies would make them resume work till the Essex had gone.