The Sign of the Red Cross | Page 9

father in a
wholesome awe; but the mother made no complaint of her son, but only
said she had been affrighted by hearing that there were more deaths
from the plague than she had thought would ever be the case after all
the care the Magistrates had taken, and was it true that the Lord Mayor
had spoken of shutting up the houses, and so causing the sound ones to
become diseased and to perish with the stricken ones?
The Master Builder answered gravely enough; for he had himself but
just come in from hearing that the weekly Bills of Mortality were
terribly high, and that the deaths in certain of the western parishes had
been beyond all reckoning since the last years when the plague had
visited the city. True, there were not many put down as having died of
the plague; but it was known how much was done to get other diseases
set down in the bills, so that there was not much comfort to be got out

of that.
The Master Builder thought that the houses would not be shut up unless
things became much worse. The matter had been spoken of, as he
himself had heard; but the people were much against it, and it would be
a measure most difficult to enforce, and would tend to make men
conceal from the authorities any case of distemper which appeared
amongst them. But he said it was true enough that persons of high
degree were beginning to move into the country, at least from the
western part of the town; but that all felt very sure the distemper would
speedily be checked, and would not come within the city walls at all,
nor extend eastward beyond its boundaries.
Madam breathed a little more freely on hearing this, but made an eager
suggestion to her husband that they should go away if the distemper
began to spread.
But the Master Builder shook his head impatiently.
"A fine thing to run away from a chance ill, and court a certain ruin!
How do you think business will thrive if all the men run away from
their shops like affrighted sheep? No, no; it is often safest to stay at
home with closed doors than to run helter skelter to strange places
where one knows not who may have been last. Keep indoors with your
perfumes and spices, and keep the wench close with you. That is the
best way of outwitting the enemy. Besides, it has come nowhere near
us yet."
Madam had certainly no mind to be ruined, nor was she one who loved
change or the discomforts of travel. So she thought on the whole her
husband's advice was good. It would be much more comfortable to stay
here with closed doors, surrounded by the luxuries of home.
Now as Frederick sat with outstretched legs in one of the easiest chairs
in the room, and heard his father speak of these things, a thought came
into his head which tickled his fancy so vastly that throughout the
evening he kept bursting into smothered laughter, so much so that his
sister threw him many suspicious glances, and divined that he had some

evil purpose in his head.
The May light lasted long in the sky; but as it failed Frederick went out,
as was his wont, and for many hours he spent his time with a number of
kindred spirits in a neighbouring tavern, quaffing large potations, and
dicing and gaming after the fashion of the Court gallants.
The bulk of the young roisterers thus assembled belonged to one of
those bands of Scourers of which Frederick claimed to be the head.
They were the worthy successors to the "Roaring Boys" or Bonaventors
of past centuries, and their favourite pastime was, after spending the
night in revelry and play, to start forth towards dawn and scour the
streets, upsetting the baskets or carts of the early market folks bringing
their wares into the town, scattering the merchandise in the gutter,
kissing the women, cuffing the men, wrenching off knockers from
house doors, and getting up fights with the watch or with some rival
band of Scourers which resulted in broken heads and sometimes in
actual bloodshed.
The Magistrates treated these misdemeanours with wonderful tolerance
when the culprits were from time to time brought before them, and the
nuisance went on practically unchecked--the people being used to wild
and dissolute ways and much brawling--and looking on it as one of the
necessary ills of life.
But upon this bright May morning, before the streets began to awaken,
even before the market folks were astir, Frederick led forth his band
intent upon a new sort of mischief. Some of the number carried pots of
red paint in their hands, and others