four who carried the corpse of a young woman a mile of way; and when we came to the grave, an honest poor man came and said, You must go and help me to bury my son, he has lien dead this two days; otherwise I will be obliged to bury him in my own yard. We went, and there were eight of us had two miles to carry the corpse of that young man, many neighbours looking on us, but none to help us. I was credibly informed, that in the north, two sisters on a Monday's morning were found carrying the corpse of their brother on a barrow with bearing ropes, resting themselves many times, and none offering to help them.
I have seen some walking about sun-setting, and to-morrow about six o'clock in the summer morning, found dead in their houses, without making any stir at their death, their head lying upon their hand, with as great smell as if they had been four days dead, the mice or rats, having eaten a great part of their hands and arms.
Many had cleanness of teeth in our cities, and want of bread in our borders: and to some the stuff of bread was so utterly broken, (which makes complete famine) that they did eat and were neither satisfied nor nourished: And some of them said to me, that they could mind nothing but meat, and were nothing bettered by it; and that they were utterly unconcerned about their souls, whether they went to heaven or hell.
The nearer and sorer these plagues seized, the sadder were their effects, that took away all natural and relative affections, so that husbands had no sympathy with their wives, nor wives with their husbands, parents with their children, nor children with their parents. These and other things have made me to doubt if ever any of Adam's race were in a more deplorable condition, their bodies and spirits more low, than many were in these years
The crowning plague of all these great and manifold
