I knew the object with which Mr. Harvey
and his wife had come up to London, at a time when most men were
fleeing from it. Their son has, ever since he came up three years
ago, been a source of grievous trouble to them, as he was, indeed,
for a long time previously. Some natures seem naturally to turn to
evil, and this boy's was one of them. It may be that the life at home
was too rigid and severe, and that he revolted against it. Certain it
is that he took to evil courses and consorted with bad companions.
Severity was unavailing. He would break out of the house at night and
be away for days. He was drunken and dissolute.
"At last, just after a considerable sum of money had come into the
house from the tenants' rents, he stole it, and went up to London.
His name was not mentioned at home, though his father learnt from
correspondents here that he had become a hanger-on of the Court,
where, his father being a man of condition, he found friends without
difficulty. He was a gambler and a brawler, and bore a bad reputation
even among the riff-raff of the Court. His father learnt that he had
disappeared from sight at the time the Court went to Oxford early in
June, and his correspondent found that he was reported to have joined
a band of abandoned ruffians, whose least crimes were those of
robbery.
"When the Plague spread rapidly, Mr. Harvey and his wife determined
to come up to London, to make one more effort to draw him from his
evil courses.
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