And those who
had fled the plague-stricken city returned to find a scene of
desolation, greater in its misery than words can describe. But
the tide of human existence having once turned, the capital
gradually resumed its former appearance. Shops which had been
closed were opened afresh; houses whose inmates had been carried
to the grave became again centres of activity; the sound of
traffic was heard in streets long silent; church bells called the
citizens to prayer; marts were crowded; and people wore an air of
cheerfulness becoming the survivors of a calamity. And so all
things went on as before.
The mortality bills computed the number of burials which took
place in London during this year at ninety-seven thousand three
hundred and six, of which sixty-eight thousand five hundred find
ninety-six were attributed to the plague. This estimate has been
considered by all historians as erroneous. For on the first
appearance of the distemper, the number of deaths set down was
far below that which truth warranted, in order that the citizens
might not be affrighted; and when it was at its height no exact
account of those shifted from the dead-carts into the pits was
taken. Moreover, many were buried by their friends in fields and
gardens. Lord Clarendon, an excellent authority, states that
though the weekly bills reckoned the number of deaths at about
one hundred thousand, yet "many who could compute very well,
concluded that there were in truth double that number who died;
and that in one week, when the bill mentioned only six thousand,
there had in truth fourteen thousand died.
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