Others would secretly convey the
pestilential taint from sores of the infected to those who were
well; and nothing indeed deterred these abandoned miscreants from
prosecuting their avaricious purposes by all methods their
wickedness could invent; who, although they were without
witnesses to accuse them, yet it is not doubted but divine
vengeance will overtake such wicked barbarities with due
punishment. Nay, some were remarkably struck from heaven in the
perpetration of their crimes; and one particularly amongst many,
as she was leaving the house of a family, all dead, loaded with
her robberies, fell down lifeless under her burden in the street.
And the case of a worthy citizen was very remarkable, who, being
suspected dying by his nurse, was beforehand stripped by her; but
recovering again, he came a second time into the world naked."
But notwithstanding all precautions and care taken by the Duke of
Albemarle and the worthy lord mayor, the dreadful pestilence
spread with alarming rapidity; as may be judged from the fact
that the number who died in the first week of June amounted to
forty-three, whilst during the last week of that month two
hundred and sixty-seven persons were carried to their graves.
From the 4th of July to the 11th, seven hundred and fifty-five
deaths were chronicled; the following eight days the death rate
rose to one thousand and eighty-two; whilst the ensuing week this
high figure was increased by over eight hundred.
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