might be walking a little feebly or unsteadily, and once Joseph saw
a man some fifty paces in advance of him stagger and fall to the
ground with a lamentable cry.

Instead of flying to his assistance, all who saw him fled in
terror, crying one to the other, "It is the pestilence! Send for
the watch to get him away!"

And presently there came two men who lifted him up and carried him
away, but whether he was then alive or dead the boy did not know,
and a great awe fell upon him; for he had never seen such a thing
before, and could not understand how death could come so suddenly.

"Is it always so with them?" he asked of a woman who was craning
her head out of a window to see where the bearers were taking him.

"I cannot tell," she answered. "They say that there be many walking
about amongst us daily in the streets who carry death to all in
their breath and in their touch, and yet they know it not
themselves, and none know it till they fall as yon poor man did,
and die ofttimes in a few minutes or hours. If such be so, who
knows when he is safe? May the Lord have mercy upon us all! There
be seven lying dead in this street today, and though folks say they
died of other fevers and distempers, who can tell? They bribe the
nurses and the leeches to return them dead of smaller ailments, but
I verily believe the pestilence is stalking through our very midst
even now."

She shut down the window with a groan, and Joseph pursued his way
with somewhat modified feelings, half elated at being in the thick