The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: and it would fill a little volume to set down the arts used by the people
of such houses to shut the eyes of the watchmen who were employed,
to deceive them, and to escape or break out from them, in which
frequent scuffles and some mischief happened; of which by itself.
As I went along Houndsditch one morning about eight o'clock there
was a great noise. It is true, indeed, there was not much crowd,
because people were not very free to gather together, or to stay long
together when they were there; nor did I stay long there. But the
outcry was loud enough to prompt my curiosity, and I called to one
that looked out of a window, and asked what was the matter.
A watchman, it seems, had been employed to keep his post at the
 A Journal of the Plague Year |