your body."

Blaize promised obedience, adding in a supplicating tone, "Leonard, if I
were you, I would not go to the Examiner of Health. Poor Stephen may not
have the plague, after all. It's a dreadful thing to be imprisoned for a
month, for that's the time appointed by the Lord Mayor. Only a week ago
I passed several houses in Holborn, shut up on account of the plague,
with a watchman at the door, and I never shall forget the melancholy
faces I saw at the windows. It was a dreadful spectacle, and has haunted
me ever since."

"It cannot be helped," rejoined Leonard, with a sigh. "If we disobey the
Lord Mayor's orders, and neglect giving information, we shall all be
sent to Newgate, while poor Stephen will be taken to the pest-house.
Besides, the searchers will be here before morning. They are sure to
learn what has happened from Doctor Hodges."

"True, true," replied Blaize; "I had forgotten that. Let me go with you,
dear Leonard. I dare not remain here longer."

"What! would you leave your kind good master, at a time like this, when
he most needs your services?" rejoined Leonard, reproachfully. "Out,
cowardly hound! I am ashamed of you. Shake off your fears, and be a man.
You can but die once; and what matters it whether you die of the plague
or the cholic?"

"It matters a great deal," replied Blaize. "I am afraid of nothing but
the plague. I am sure I shall be its next victim in this house. But you
are right--I cannot desert my kind master, nor my old mother. Farewell,
Leonard. Perhaps we may never meet again. I may be dead before you come