following the coffin had seemed struck with horror; but now they got
into order again; and I heard one near the window bidding them
sneeringly never to heed a mad Quaker, while another said aloud, 'I
marvel such an evil-boding fool is left at large, when far quieter folks
of his sort lie rotting in prison;' words which made me fain to hear
more; but the men all moved off, and I had scarce seen their torches go
twinkling away into darkness, when I heard the signal at the back door,
and hurried joyfully to let in my friends, who had been delayed by
meeting the funeral; but they had missed the other strange spectacle.

As I remember, this was the second Saturday we spent in town; and here I
may say that almost every Lord's Day which found us in our dismal abode,
we two made our way to some church at a good distance, and there joined
in worship.

I never saw churches more crowded, worshippers more devout, ministers
more fervent. We understood by what we heard that not a few clergymen
were dead of the Plague, and others fled for terror; because of which
certain of the silenced ministers were called on to fill those vacant
pulpits; and they did so while the Plague lasted, with great zeal and
boldness, no man saying them nay. But neither the courage of these men,
nor the fervency with which they preached and visited among the sick and
dying, could so far recommend them to Will that he would set foot in
what he called the steeple-houses; so on the Lord's Day we had to
dispense with his attendance, and this troubled me; but on the other
hand there was comfort in seeing how my poor sister rejoiced in the
ministerings of these faithful men. A great change showed itself in
her; she was full of a new tenderness to me, and was most mild and
patient with poor Will and his odd ways; and as for him, I believe he
would have died for her, or done anything that she desired, except