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ANDREW GOLDING:

A Tale of the Great Plague.

By

ANNIE E. KEELING

CONTENTS.

CHAP.

INTRODUCTION.—HOW I, LUCIA DACRE, CAME TO WRITE THIS HISTORY

I. HOW WE WERE VISITED BY TWO OF OUR KINSFOLK, OUR FATHER BEING DEAD;AND HOW THEY BEHAVED THEMSELVES TOWARD US

II. HOW WE JOURNEYED UP TO YORKSHIRE; AND HOW WE WERE WELCOMED THERE

III. HOW MR. TRUELOCKE PREACHED HIS LAST SERMON IN WEST FAZEBY

IV. HOW HARRY TRUELOCKE LEFT US FOR THE SEA

V. HOW ANDREW MADE ONE ENEMY, AND WAS LIKE TO HAVE ANOTHER

VI. HOW MR. TRUELOCKE AND MRS. GOLDING LEFT US

VII. HOW ANDREW CAME TO THE GRANGE BY NIGHT

VIII. HOW A STRANGE MESSENGER BROUGHT US NEWS OF ANDREW

IX. HOW WE WENT UP TO LONDON, AND FOUND NO FRIENDS THERE

X. HOW WE DWELT IN A HOUSE THAI' WAS NOT OUR OWN

XI. HOW THERE CAME NEW GUESTS INTO THE HOUSE

XII HOW WE SAILED FOR FRANCE IN THE 'MARIE-ROYALE'

CONCLUSION.—HOW LUCIA DWELLS IN ENGLAND, AND ALTHEA OTHERWHERE

INTRODUCTION.

HOW I, LUCIA DACRE, CAME TO WRITE THIS HISTORY, AT THE TIME THAT I WITHMY SISTER WAS LODGED IN A DESERTED HOUSE IN LONDON, WHEN THE GREATPLAGUE WAS AT ITS HEIGHT; WHICH WAS IN THE MONTHS OF JULY AND AUGUST,ANNO SIXTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIVE.

Now that my sister and myself are in such a strange melancholy case, andI enforced to spend many hours daily in idleness, I find the time hangvery heavy; for I cannot, like Althea, entertain any longer the hopesthat brought us hither. She continues daily to make great exertions inpursuing them, but does not often admit my help; and, being afraid thatI may fall into mere desperation, I have bethought me how to amuse somehours daily by setting down the manner of our present troubles and thebeginnings that led to them. May I live to write of their happy end! butmy fears are very great, and almost forbid me to pray thus.

Having thus resolved how to beguile the heavy time, I began spying aboutfor paper and pens and ink; and finding in a kind of lumber room a greatmany sheets of coarse paper, I stitched them together; then with muchtrembling I peeped into the study of the late poor master of the house,and there found a bundle of quills and some ink; and, leaving money inhis desk to the full value of the things I took, I carried mywriting-tools into the great front parlour, and set myself to the work.

Now while I sat considering how to begin, Althea comes softly behind me,and, looking over my shoulder, asks me what I would be at; and when Itold her, 'What, child,' says she, 'art going to turn historian? Thyspirits are more settled than mine, if thou canst sit quietly down tosuch work, with sights like these daily before thine eyes,' pointingwith her hand to the window. Now I had pulled the table into a cornerwell out of sight from the street, wishing not to be discerned; for asyet but one knows of our being hidden in this house, and we would fainkeep it a secret still. But rising and following with my eyes herpointing hand, I could behold a sight common enough, but too dismal tobe looked on without fresh apprehension each time: in the middle of thestreet, which is quite grown with grass, a horse and cart standing, nodriver in sight near it, and the cart as we too well knew being thatwhich goes round daily to take away such as die of the Plague, though asit then stood we could not discern if any dead person lay in it.

'It is waiting for our neighbour next door,' says Althea. 'As I stood byan open casement up-stairs I plainly heard the family bemoaning