children--" in confused speech were the words that struck my ear.

Do you not know, my friends," I said, "that the Earl himself, now Lord

Protector, visits daily, not only those probably infected by this disease,

but the hospitals and pest houses, going near, and even touching the sick?

yet he was never in better health. You labour under an entire mistake as to

the nature of the plague; but do not fear, I do not ask any of you to

accompany me, nor to believe me, until I return safe and sound from my

patient."

So I left them, and hurried on. I soon arrived at the hut: the door was

ajar. I entered, and one glance assured me that its former inhabitant was

no more--he lay on a heap of straw, cold and stiff; while a pernicious

effluvia filled the room, and various stains and marks served to shew the

virulence of the disorder.

I had never before beheld one killed by pestilence. While every mind was

full of dismay at its effects, a craving for excitement had led us to

peruse De Foe's account, and the masterly delineations of the author of

Arthur Mervyn. The pictures drawn in these books were so vivid, that we

seemed to have experienced the results depicted by them. But cold were the

sensations excited by words, burning though they were, and describing the

death and misery of thousands, compared to what I felt in looking on the

corpse of this unhappy stranger. This indeed was the plague. I raised his

rigid limbs, I marked the distortion of his face, and the stony eyes lost

to perception. As I was thus occupied, chill horror congealed my blood,

341

The Last Man