three in the
morning
The infection raged , and the people were now terrified to the last degree , so that , as I may say , they gave themselves up , and , as I mentioned above , abandoned themselves to their despair . But let me observe here , that when I say the people abandoned themselves to despair , I do not mean to what men call a religious despair , or a despair of their eternal state ; but I mean a despair of their being able to escape the infection , or to outlive the plague , which they saw was so raging , and so irresistible in its force , that indeed few people that were touched with it in its height , about August and September , escaped ; and , which is very particular , contrary to its ordinary operation in June and July and the beginning of August , when , as I have observed , many were infected , and continued so many days , and then went off , after having had the poison in their blood a long time . But now , on the contrary , most of the people who were taken during the last two weeks in August , and in the first three weeks in September , generally died in two or three days at the farthest , and many the very same day they were taken . Whether the dog days -LSB- 244 -RSB- -LRB- as our astrologers pretended to express themselves , the influence of the Dog Star -RRB- had that malignant effect , or all those who had the seeds of infection before in them brought it up to a maturity at that time altogether , I know not ; but this was the time when it was reported that above three thousand people died in one night ; and they that would have us believe they more critically observed it pretend to say that they all died within the space of two hours , viz. , between the hours of one and three in the morning . As to the suddenness of people dying at this time , more than before , there were innumerable instances of it , and I could name several in my neighborhood . One family without the bars , and not far from me , were all seemingly well on the Monday , being ten in family . That evening one maid and one apprentice were taken ill , and died the next morning , when the other apprentice and two children were touched , whereof one died the same evening and the other two on Wednesday .