664 THE CATASTROPHE OF TWELVE HOURS. 



nation, unless they lay down promiscuously on a part of the floor, 

 bearing some faint marks of a bed ; but of what materials made up, 

 was not very clear, as little could be seen except tattered coats, and 

 two parallel blocks of wood forming its sides. There was, however, 

 something in the general appearance of the family inconsistent with 

 such a barbarous mode of passing the night; though, had this been 

 the case, it would have excited very little surprise. And, on more 

 minute inspection, a few bundles of straw, partly covered by cotton- 

 flocks, were discovered in a back apartment, partially separated from 

 the larger room by a screen, formed of two or three old sacks. It 

 required, indeed, quick eyes to detect any thing very clearly in this 

 miserable abode, gloomy as it ever was from the narrow opening be- 

 tween the lofty houses, and the still loftier walls behind them. A 

 blackened fragment of a pipe, and a curious leaden tobacco-pot, were 

 also seen occupying a corner of the huge fire-place, shewing that 

 some one, probably the old woman,, indulged in the inhalation of that 

 article. 



A few potatoes, and a piece or two of scraggy and not very fresh- 

 looking mutton, were preparing for dinner by the grand'am, whilst 

 Sarah herself was busily engaged in arranging various ill-assorted 

 platters and broken pewter spoons on a ricketty table, and the bell of the 

 collegiate church hardly tolled twelve, before all the members of the 

 family were standing or sitting round it, partaking of the ingredients 

 of a large brown dish, filled with stewed meat and potatoes. Appa- 

 rently, the meal was a more palatable one than had been recently en- 

 joyed by the group, judging, at least, from the assiduity and conti- 

 nuance of each applicant. Few words were spoken for some minutes, 

 and little heard, beyond the clatter made by the parties eating, and 

 the tapping of the beak of the tame jackdaw on the window-sill, and 

 the discordant solicitations of puss for her share of the dinner. There 

 was an expression of considerable anxiety on the several faces of old 

 and young ; for the " plague," as they ominously termed the cholera, 

 had already carried off several victims in a neighbouring entry. The 

 terrors of the disease amongst the lower classes were at their maxi- 

 mum, aided, as these were, by several unfortunate, though fortuitous 

 circumstances, and in one or two instances by the culpable conduct 

 of subordinate parties connected with the hospitals. 



" And so Mary Jones is dead of the plague," said the old woman, 

 after a pause " and they say that James is bad of it, and is to be 

 removed to the hospital." 



" Nay, grannie," answered the oldest boy, et he is already taken 

 away ; for I saw the plague- van fetch Mary, and very shortly come 

 back, and the men put him in without any covering, and drove off at 

 full gallop with him." 



" Oh ! the murdering, poisoning wretches," exclaimed the mother. 



" I don't know, wife, how it is that the doctors should poison them, 

 but every body says it is so; and I would rather rot where I am, 

 than be carried away in that cursed van."* 



* So strong were the objections of the lower classes to the Cholera hospitals, 

 that they wilfully abstained from making their cases known, and many perished 



