A Child's History of England.216

For, this was the year and the time of the Great Plague in London. During the winter of one thousand six hundred and sixty-four it had been whispered about, that some few people had died here and there of the disease called the Plague, in some of the unwholesome [不卫生的] suburbs around London. News was not published at that time as it is now, and some people believed these rumours, and some disbelieved them, and they were soon forgotten. But, in the month of May, one thousand six hundred and sixty-five, it began to be said all over the town that the disease had burst out with great violence in St. Giles's, and that the people were dying in great numbers. This soon turned out to be awfully true. The roads out of London were choked up by people endeavouring to escape from the infected city, and large sums were paid for any kind of conveyance [运输]. The disease soon spread so fast, that it was necessary to shut up the houses in which sick people were, and to cut them off from communication with the living. Every one of these houses was marked on the outside of the door with a red cross, and the words, Lord, have mercy upon us! The streets were all deserted, grass grew in the public ways, and there was a dreadful silence in the air. When night came on, dismal [凄凉的] rumblings used to be heard, and these were the wheels of the death-carts, attended by men with veiled faces and holding cloths to their mouths, who rang doleful [悲伤的] bells and cried in a loud and solemn voice, 'Bring out your dead!' The corpses put into these carts were buried by torchlight in great pits; no service [宗教服务] being performed over them; all men being afraid to stay for a moment on the brink [边缘] of the ghastly graves. In the general fear, children ran away from their parents, and parents from their children. Some who were taken [入院] ill, died alone, and without any help. Some were stabbed or strangled by hired nurses who robbed them of all their money, and stole the very beds on which they lay. Some went mad, dropped from the windows, ran through the streets, and in their pain and frenzy [狂乱] flung themselves into the river.

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/The-Great-Plague/

In two successive years of the 17th century London suffered two terrible disasters. In the spring and summer of 1665 an outbreak of Bubonic Plague spread from parish to parish until thousands had died and the huge pits dug to receive the bodies were full. In 1666 the Great Fire of London destroyed much of the centre of London, but also helped to kill off some of the black rats and fleas that carried the plague bacillus. Bubonic Plague was known as the Black Death and had been known in England for centuries. It was a ghastly disease.

These were not all the horrors of the time. The wicked [邪恶的] and dissolute [放荡的], in wild desperation, sat in the taverns singing roaring songs, and were stricken [the past participle of some meanings of strike] as they drank, and went out and died. The fearful and superstitious persuaded themselves that they saw supernatural sights - burning swords in the sky, gigantic arms and darts. Others pretended [声称] that at nights vast crowds of ghosts walked round and round the dismal pits. One madman, naked, and carrying a brazier [火盆] full of burning coals upon his head, stalked through the streets, crying out that he was a Prophet, commissioned [委派] to denounce the vengeance of the Lord on wicked London. Another always went to and fro, exclaiming, 'Yet forty days, and London shall be destroyed!' A third awoke the echoes in the dismal streets, by night and by day, and made the blood of the sick run cold, by calling out incessantly [constantly], in a deep hoarse voice, 'O, the great and dreadful God!'

1665年 = 永历十九年 = 康熙四年。三月初二京师发生强烈地震。5月20日牛顿在他的手稿里第一次提出“流数术”。

六级/考研单词: plague, suburb, rumor, burst, choke, endeavor, infect, convey, necessity, mercy, dread, veil, loud, solemn, corpse, cart, pit, brink, grave, stab, strangle, rob, thief, fling, outbreak, parish, dig, rat, wicked, roar, superstition, sword, dart, ghost, naked, stalk, commission, denounce, exclaim, tertiary, echo, shallow