three in the morning
Some were for fires , but that they must be made of wood and not coal , and of particular sorts of wood too , such as fir in particular , or cedar , because of the strong effluvia of turpentine ; others were for coal and not wood , because of the sulphur and bitumen ; and others were for neither one or other . Upon the whole , the Lord Mayor ordered no more fires , and especially on this account , namely , that the plague was so fierce that they saw evidently it defied all means , and rather seemed to increase than decrease upon any application to check and abate it ; and yet this amazement of the magistrates proceeded rather from want of being able to apply any means successfully than from any unwillingness either to expose themselves or undertake the care and weight of business ; for , to do them justice , they neither spared their pains nor their persons . But nothing answered ; the infection raged , and the people were now frighted and 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 two last weeks in August and in the three first weeks in September , generally died in two or three days at furthest , and many the very same day they were taken ; whether the dog - days , or , as our astrologers pretended to express themselves , the influence of the dog-star , 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 3000 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 's dying at this time , more than before , there were innumerable instances of it , and I could name several in my neighbourhood . 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 .