Paul into a vast
plague-hospital. Cries and lamentations echoed from one end of
the city to the other, and Death and Charles reigned over London
together.
Yet in the midst of all this, many scenes of wild orgies and
debauchery still went on within its gates - as, in our own day,
when the cholera ravaged Paris, the inhabitants of that facetious
city made it a carnival, so now, in London, they were many who,
feeling they had but a few days to live at the most, resolved to
defy death, and indulge in the revelry while they yet existed.
"Eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow you die!" was their
motto; and if in the midst of the frantic dance or debauched
revel one of them dropped dead, the others only shrieked with
laughter, hurled the livid body out to the street, and the
demoniac mirth grew twice as fast and furious as before. Robbers
and cut-purses paraded the streets at noonday, entered boldly
closed and deserted houses, and bore off with impunity, whatever
they pleased. Highwaymen infested Hounslow Heath, and all the
roads leading from the city, levying a toll on all who passed,
and plundering fearlessly the flying citizens.
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