Then the weather setting in very
severe checked it till the end of February, and we all hoped that the
danger was over, and that we should be rid of the distemper before
the warm weather set in; but for the last fortnight there has been a
rise rather than a fall--not a large one, but sufficient to cause
great alarm that it will continue until warm weather sets in, and may
then grow into terrible proportions. So far, there has been no case
in the City, and it is only in the West that it has any hold, the
deaths being altogether in the parishes of St. Giles's, St. Andrew's,
St. Bride's, and St. James's, Clerkenwell. Of course, there have been
cases now and then for many years past, and nine years ago it spread
to a greater extent than now, and were we at the beginning of winter
instead of nearing summer there would be no occasion to think much of
the matter; but, with the hot weather approaching, and the tales we
hear of the badness of the Plague in foreign parts one cannot but
feel anxious."
"And they say, too, that there have been prophecies of grievous evils
in London," Nellie put in.
"We need not trouble about that," her father replied. "The
Anabaptists prophesied all sorts of evils in Elizabeth's time, but
naught came of it. There are always men and women with disordered
minds, who think that they are prophets, and have power to see
further into the future than other people, but no one minds them or
thinks aught of their wild words save at a time like the present,
when there is a danger of war or pestilence.
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