The Sign of the Red Cross: A Tale of Old London

by Evelyn Everett-Green

  CHAPTER V. THE PLOT AND ITS PUNISHMENT.

  Strange as it may appear, the awful nature of the calamity whichhad overtaken the great city had by no means the subduing influenceupon the spirits of the lawless young roisterers of the streetsthat might well have been expected. No doubt there were someamongst these who were sobered by the misfortunes of their fellows,and by the danger in which every person in the town now stood; butit seemed as if the very imminence of the peril and the fearfulspread of the contagion exercised upon others a hardeninginfluence, and they became even more lawless and dissolute thanbefore. "Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die," appeared to betheir motto, and they lived up to it only too well.

  So whilst the churches were thronged with multitudes of pious orterrified persons, assembled to pray to God for mercy, and tolisten to words of godly counsel or admonition; whilst the cityauthorities were doing everything in their power to check thecourse of the frightful contagion, and send needful relief to thesufferers, and many devoted men and women were adventuring theirlives daily for the sake of others, the taverns were still filledday by day and night by night with idle and dissolute young men,tainted with all the vices of a vicious Court and an unbelievingage--drinking, and making hideous mockery of the woes of theirtownsmen, careless even when the gaps amid their own ranks showedthat the fell disease was busy amongst all classes and ranks.Indeed, it was no unheard of thing for a man to fall stricken tothe ground in the midst of one of these revels; and although themaster of the house would hastily throw him out of the door as ifhe had staggered forth drunk, yet it would ofttimes be thedistemper which had him in its fatal clutches, and the dead cartwould remove him upon its next gloomy round.

  For now indeed the pestilence was spreading with a fearfulrapidity. The King, taking sudden alarm, after being careless andcallous for long, had removed with his Court to Oxford. The fiatfor the shutting up of all infected houses had gone forth, and wasbeing put in practice, greatly increasing the terror of thecitizens, albeit many of them recognized in it both wisdom andforesight. Something plainly had to be done to check the spread ofthe infection. And as there was no means of removing the sick fromtheir houses--there being but two or three pest houses in allLondon--even should their friends be prompt to give notice, andpermit them to be borne away, the only alternative seemed to be toshut them up within the doors of the house where they lay stricken;and since they might already have infected all within it, condemnthese also to share the imprisonment. It was this that was thehardship, and which caused so many to strive to evade the law byevery means in their power. It drove men mad with fear to think ofbeing shut up in an infected house with a person smitten with thefell disease. Yet if the houses were not so closed, and guarded bywatchmen hired for the purpose, the sick in their delirium wouldhave constantly been getting out and running madly about thestreets, as indeed did sometimes happen, infecting every personthey met. Restraint of some sort was needful, and the closing ofthe houses seemed the only way in which this could be accomplished.

  It may be guessed what hard work all this entailed upon such of thebetter sort of citizens as were willing to give themselves to thebusiness. James Harmer and his two elder sons, Reuben and Dan,offered themselves to the Lord Mayor to act as examiners orsearchers, or in whatever capacity he might wish to employ them.Dan should by this time have been at sea, but his ship being stillin the docks when the plague broke out remained yet unladed. Nonefrom the infected city would purchase merchandise. The sailingmaster had himself been smitten down, and Dan, together with quitea number of sailors, was thrown out of employment.

  Many of these poor fellows were glad to take service as watchmen ofinfected houses, or even as bearers and buriers of the dead. At atime when trade was at a standstill, and men feared alike to buy orto sell, this perilous and lugubrious occupation was all that couldbe obtained, and so there were always men to be found for the taskof watching the houses, though at other times it might have beenimpossible to get enough.

  Orders had been sent round the town that all cases of the distemperwere to be reported within a few hours of discovery to the examinerof health, who then had the house shut up, supplied it with a dayand a night watchman (whose duty it was to wait on the inmates andbring them all they needed), and had the door marked with theominous red cross and the motto of which mention has been madebefore. Plague nurses were numerous, but too often these were womenof the worst character, bent rather upon plunder than desirous ofrelieving the sufferers. Grim stories were told of their neglectand rapacity. Yet amongst them were many devoted and excellentwomen, and the physicians who bravely faced the terrors of the timeand remained at their post when others fled from the peril, deserveall honour and praise; the more so that many amongst these died ofthe infection, as indeed did numbers of the examiners and searcherswho likewise remained at their post to the end.

  It will therefore be well understood that good Master Harmer andhis sons had no light time of it, and ran no small personal risk intheir endeavours to serve their fellow citizens in this crisis.Although the pestilence had not as yet broken out in this part ofthe town with the virulence that it had shown elsewhere, stillthere were fresh cases rumoured day by day; and it often appearedthat when one case in a street was reported, there had been manyothers there before of which no notice had been given, and thatperhaps half a dozen houses were infected, and must be forthwithshut up. At first neglectful persons were brought before theMagistrates; but soon these persons became too numerous, and theMagistrates too busy to hear their excuses. An example was made ofone or another, to show that the laws must be kept; but Newgateitself becoming infected by the disease, it was not thought fit tosend any malefactor there except for some heinous offence.

  Dan joined the force of the constables, and day by day had excitingtales to tell about determined persons who had escaped frominfected houses either by tricking or overpowering the watchman.All sorts of clever shifts were made to enable families whereperhaps only one lay sick to escape from the house, leaving thesick person sometimes quite alone, or sometimes in charge of anurse. Dan said it was heartrending to hear the cries andlamentations of miserable creatures pleading to be let out,convinced that it was certain death to them to remain shut up withthe sick. Yet, since they might likely be themselves alreadyinfected, it was the greater peril and cruelty to let them forth;and he had ghastly tales to tell of the visitation of certainhouses, where the watchmen reported that nothing had been asked forfor long, and where, when the house was entered by searchers orconstables, every person within was found either dead or dying.

  The precautions duly observed by the Harmer family had hithertoproved efficacious, and though the father and his sons going abouttheir daily duties came into contact with infected personsfrequently, yet, by the use of the disinfectants recommended by theCollege of Physicians, and by a close and careful attention totheir directions, they went unscathed in the midst of much peril,and brought no ill to those at home when they returned thither forneedful rest and refreshment. Janet had had a slight attack ofillness, but there were no absolute symptoms of the distemper withit. Her father was of opinion that it might possibly be a very mildform of the disease, but the doctor called in thought not, and sotheir house escaped being shut up, and after a prudent intervalJanet came down and took her place in the family as before. Motherand daughters worked together for the relief of the sick poor,making and sending out innumerable dainties in the way of broth,possets, and light puddings, which were gratefully received by poorfolks in shut-up houses, who, although fed and cared for at thepublic expense when not able to provide for themselves, weregrateful indeed for these small boons, and felt themselves notquite so forlorn and wretched when receiving tokens of goodwillfrom even an unknown source.

  The harmony, tranquillity, and goodwill that reigned in thishousehold, even in the midst of so much that was terrible, was agreat contrast to the anguish, terror, and ceaseless recriminationswhich made the Masons' abode a veritable purgatory for its lucklessinhab
itants. As the news of the spreading contagion reached her, sodid Madam's terror and horror increase. As her husband had saidlong since, she sat in rooms with closed windows and drawncurtains, burned fires large enough to roast an ox, and halfpoisoned herself with the drugs she daily swallowed, and which shewould have forced upon her whole household had they not rebelledagainst being thus sickened. As a natural consequence of her follyand ungovernable fears, Madam was never well, and was for everdiscovering some new symptom which threw her into an ecstasy ofterror. She would wake in the night screaming out in uncontrollablefear that she had gotten the plague--that she felt a burning tumourhere or there upon her person--that she was sinking away into adeadly swoon, or that something fatal was befalling her. By day shewould fall into like passions of fear, call out to her daughter tosend for every physician whose name she had heard, and upbraid andrevile her in the most unmeasured terms if the poor girl venturedto hint that the doctors were beginning to be tired of coming tolisten to what always proved imaginary terrors.

  The only times when husband or daughter enjoyed any peace was whenFrederick chose to make his appearance at home. On these occasionshis mother would summon him to her presence, although in mortalfear lest he should bring infection with him, and make him tell herall the most frightful stories which he had picked up about theawful spread of the disease, about the iniquities and abominationspractised by nurses and buriers, of which last there was plenty ofgossip (although probably much was set down in malice and muchexaggerated) and all the prognostications of superstitious orprofane persons as to the course the pestilence was going to take.Eagerly did she listen to all of these stories, which Fredericktook care should be very well spiced, as it was at once hisamusement to frighten his mother and spite his sister; for Gertrudein private implored him not to continue to alarm their mother withhis frightful tales, and also begged him for his own sake torelinquish his evil habits of intemperance, which at such a time asthis might lead to fatal results.

  The good-for-nothing youth only mocked at her, and derided hisfather when he gave him the same warning. He had become perfectlyunmanageable and reckless, and nothing that he heard or saw abouthim produced any impression. Although taverns and ale houses wereclosely watched, and ordered to close at nine o'clock, and thegatherings of idle and profligate youths of whatever condition oflife sternly reprobated and forbidden by the authorities, yet theseworthies found means of evading or defying the regulations, andtheir revels continued as before, so that Frederick was seldomthoroughly sober, and more reckless and careless even than of old.In vain his father strove to bring him to a better mind; in vain hewarned him of the peril of his ways and the danger to his health ofsuch constant excesses. Frederick only laughed insolently;whereupon the Master Builder, who had but just come from hisneighbour's house, and was struck afresh with the contrastpresented by the two homes, asked him if he knew how Reuben Harmerwas passing his time, and made a few bitter comparisons between hisson and those of his neighbour.

  This was perhaps unfortunate, for Frederick, like most men of histype, was both vain and spiteful. The mention of the Harmers puthim instantly in mind of his grudge against Reuben and hissuddenly-aroused admiration for rosy-cheeked Dorcas, both of whichmatters had been put out of his head by recent events. He haddiscovered also that Reuben generally accompanied his sister homefrom Lady Scrope's house in the evening, so that it had not beensafe to pursue his attempted gallantries towards the maid. But ashe heard his father's strictures upon his conduct, coupled withlaudations of his old rival Reuben, a gleam of malice shone in hiseyes, and he at once made up his mind to contrive and carry out aproject which had been vaguely floating in his brain for some time,and which might be the more easily arranged now that the town wasin a state of confusion and distress, and the streets were often soempty and deserted.

  In that age of vicious licence, it seemed nothing but an excellentjoke to Frederick and his boon companions to waylay a pretty citymaiden returning to her home from her daily duties. Frederick meantno harm to the girl; but he had been piqued by the way in which hiscompliments and kisses had been received, and above all he wasdesirous to do a despite to Reuben, whose rebukes still rankled inhis heart, though he had quickly forgotten his good offices on theoccasion of his escapade before Lady Scrope's door. Moreover, heowed that notable old woman a grudge likewise, and thought he couldpay off scores all round by making away with pretty Dorcas, at anyrate for a while. So he and his comrades laid their plans with whatthey thought great skill, resolved that they should be carried outupon the first favourable opportunity.

  For a while Dorcas had been rather nervous of leaving the house inAllhallowes unless Reuben was waiting for her. But as she had seenno more of the gallant who had accosted her, and as it was said onall hands that these had left London in hundreds, she had takencourage of late, and had bidden her brother not incommode himselfon her account, if it were difficult for him to be her escort home.

  Of late he had oftentimes been kept away by pressure of otherduties. Sometimes Dan had come in his stead. Sometimes she hadwalked back alone and unmolested. Persons avoided each other in thestreets now, and hurried by with averted glances. Although upon herhomeward route, which was but short, she had as yet no infectedhouses to pass, she always hastened along half afraid to look abouther. But her father's good counsel and his daily prayers for hishousehold so helped her to keep up heart, that she had not yet beenfrightened from her occupation, although her mistress alwaysdeclared on parting in the evening that she never expected to seeher back in the morning.

  "If the plague does not get you, some coward terror will. Nevermind; I can do without you, child. I never looked for you to havekept so long at your post. All the rest have fled long since."

  Which was true indeed, only Dorcas and the old couple who lived inthe house still continuing their duties. Fear of the pestilence haddriven away the other servants, and they had sought safety on theother side of the water, where it was still believed infectionwould not spread.

  "I will come back in the morning. My father bids us all do ourduty, and sets us the example, madam," said Dorcas, as she preparedto take her departure.

  It was a dark evening for the time of year; heavy thundercloudswere hanging low in the sky and obscuring the light. The air wasoppressive, and seemed charged with noxious vapours. Part of thiswas due to the cloud of smoke wafted along from one of the greatfires kept burning with the object of dispelling infection. ButDorcas shivered as she stepped out into the empty street, andlooked this way and that, hoping to see one of her brothers. Butnobody was in sight and she had just descended the steps and wasturning towards her home when out from a neighbouring porch thereswaggered a very fine young gallant, who made an instant rushtowards her, with words of welcome and endearment on his lips.

  In a moment Dorcas recognized him not only as the gallant who hadaddressed her once before, but also as Frederick Mason, herbrothers' old playfellow, of whom such evil things were spoken nowby all their neighbours on the bridge.

  Uttering a little cry of terror, the girl darted back, turned, andcommenced running like a hunted hare in the opposite direction,careless where she went or what she did provided she only escapedfrom the address and advances of her pursuer. But fleet as were herown steps, those in pursuit seemed fleeter. She heard her tormentorcoming after her, calling her by name and entreating for a hearing.She knew that he was gaining upon her and must soon catch her up.She was in a lonely street where not a single passerby seemed to bestirring. She looked wildly round for some way of escape, and justat that moment saw a man come round a corner and fit a key into thedoor of one of the houses.

  Without pausing to think, Dorcas made a rush towards him, and sosoon as the door was opened she dashed within the house, and fledup the staircase--fled she knew not whither--uttering breathless,frightened cries, whilst all the time she knew that her pursuer wasclose behind, and heard his voice mingled with angry cries ofremonstrance from the man they had left below.

  Sudd
enly a door close to Dorcas opened, and a new terror wasrevealed to her horror-stricken gaze. A gaunt, tall figure, wrappedin a long white garment that looked like grave clothes, sprang outinto the stairway with a shriek that was like nothing human. Dorcassank, almost fainting with terror, to the ground; but thespectre--for such it seemed to her--paid no heed to her, but sprangupon her pursuer, who had at that moment come up, and the nextmoment had his arms wound about him in a bearlike embrace, whilstall the time he was laughing an awful laugh. Then lifting theunfortunate young man off his feet with a strength that was almostsuperhuman, he bore him rapidly down the stairs and rushed out withhim into the street.

  All this happened in so brief a moment of time that Dorcas had noteven time to regain her feet, or to utter the scream of terrorwhich came to her lips. But as she found breath to utter her cry,another door opened and a scared face looked out, whilst a woman'svoice asked in lamentable accents:

  "What do you here, maiden? What has happened to bring any personinto this shut-up house? Child, child, how didst thou obtainentrance here? The plague is in this house, and we are straitlyshut up!"

  Before Dorcas could answer for fright and the confusion of herfaculties, a pale-faced watchman came hurrying up the stairs.

  "Where is the maid?" he asked, and then seeing Dorcas he graspedher by the wrist and cried, "Unless you wish to be shut up for amonth, come away instantly. This is a stricken house. Whatpossessed you to seek shelter here? Better anything than that.

  "As for your son, mistress, he is fled forth into the street; Icould not hinder him. We are undone if the constable comes. But ifwe can get him back again ere that, all may be well. I will let youforth to lead him hither if he will listen to your voice."

  From the room whence the sick man had appeared a frightened facelooked forth, and a half-tipsy old crone whimpered out:

  "The fault was none of mine. I had but just dropped asleep for amoment. But when a man has the strength of ten what can one poorold woman do?"

  Without paying any heed to this creature, the watchman and themother of the plague-stricken man, together with Dorcas, whohurriedly told her tale as they moved, ran down the dark staircaseand out into the street. There, a little way off, was the tallspectre-like figure, still hugging in bearlike embrace the haplessFrederick, and dancing the while a most weird and fantastic dance,chanting some awful words which none could rightly catch, but theburden of which was, "The dance of death! the dance of death! Nonewho dances here with me will dance with any other!"

  "For Heaven's sake release him from that embrace!" cried themother, who knew that her son was smitten to death. "If all be truethat the maid hath said, he is not fit to die, and that embrace isa deadly one!--O my son, my son! come back, come back!

  "Mercy on us, here is the watch! We are undone!"

  Indeed the trampling of many hasty feet announced the arrival of anumber of persons upon the scene. It seemed like enough to be theconstables or the watch; but the moment the newcomers appearedround the corner, Dorcas, uttering a little shriek of joy andrelief, threw herself upon the foremost man, who was in fact noneother than Reuben himself--Reuben, followed closely by his brotherDan, and they by several young roisterers, the boon companions ofFrederick.

  It had chanced that almost as soon as Dorcas had run from LadyScrope's door, hotly pursued by Frederick, her brothers had come upto fetch her thence. It was also part of that worthy's plan thatthey should hear she had been carried off, though not by himself.His half-tipsy comrades, therefore, who had come to see the sport,immediately informed the young men that the maid had been pursuedby a Scourer in such and such a direction; and so quickly had thebrothers pursued the flying footsteps of the pair--guided by thefootmarks in the dusty and untrodden streets--that they had comeupon this strange and ghastly scene almost at its commencement, andin a moment their practised eyes took in what had happened.

  The open door marked with the ominous red cross, the troubled faceof the watchman, the ghastly apparition of the deliriousplague-stricken man, the horror depicted in the face of themother--all this told a tale of its own. Scenes of a like kind werenow growing common enough in the city; but this was more terribleto the young men from the fact that the face of the unhappy andhalf-fainting Frederick was known to them and that they understoodthe awful peril into which this adventure had thrown him. They knewthe strength of delirious patients, and the peril of contagion intheir touch. To attempt to loosen that bearlike clasp might bedeath to any who attempted it.

  Reuben looked about him, still holding his sister in his arms asthough to keep her away from the peril; and Dan, who had taken onestep forward towards the sheeted spectre, paused and mutteredbetween his teeth:

  "The hound! he has but got his deserts!"

  "True," said Reuben, for he was certain now that it had beenFrederick who was Dorcas's pursuer; "yet we must not leave himthus. He will be strangled or choked by the pestilential smell ifwe cannot get him away. Take Dorcas, Dan. Let me see if I can doaught with him."

  But even as Reuben spoke, and Dorcas clung closer than ever to himin fear that he was about to adventure himself into greater peril,the delirious man suddenly flung Frederick from him, so that hefell upon the pavement almost as one dead; and then, with a hideousshriek that rang in their ears for long, fled back to the house asrapidly as he had left it, and fell down dead a few moments laterupon the bed from which he had so lately risen.

  That fact they learned only the next day. For the moment it wasenough that the patient was safely within doors again, and that thewatchman could make fast the door. The roisterers had fled at thefirst sight of the plague-stricken man with their hapless leader inhis embrace, and now the darkening street contained only theprostrate figure on the pavement, the two brothers, and thewhite-faced Dorcas, who felt like to die of fear and horror.

  As chance or Providence would have it, up at that very moment camethe Master Builder himself, and seeing his son in such a plight,shook his head gravely, thinking him drunk in the gutter. ButReuben went up and told all the tale, as far as he knew or guessedit, and Dorcas having confirmed the same more by gestures thanwords, the unhappy father smote his brow, and cried in a voice oflamentation:

  "Alas that I should have such a son! O unhappy, miserable youth!what will be thy doom now?"

  At this cry Frederick moved, and got slowly upon his feet. He hadbeen stunned by the violence of his fall, and for the first momentbelieved himself drunk, and caught at his father's arm for support.

  "Have a care, sir," said Reuben, in a low voice; "he may beinfected already by the contact."

  But the Master Builder only uttered a deep sigh like a groan, as heanswered, "I fear me he is infected by a distemper worse then theplague. I thank you, lads, for your kindly thoughts towards him andtowards me, but I must e'en take this business into mine own hands.Get you away, and take your sister with you. It is not well formaids to be abroad in a city where such things can happen. Lord,indeed have mercy upon us!"