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It was a gloomy scene and hour, and Sir Norman's heart turned sick

within him as he noticed the ruin and devastation the pestilence had

everywhere wrought And he remembered, with a shudder, the prediction

of Lilly, the astrologer, that the paved streets of London would be like

green fields, and the living be no longer able to bury the dead Long

before this, he had grown hardened and accustomed to death from its very

frequence; but now, as he looked round him, he almost resolved to ride

on and return no ue should have left it

But then caht of his unknown lady-love, and with it the

reflection that he was on his way to find her; and, rousing himself

from his melancholy reverie, he rode on at a brisker pace, heroically

resolved to brave the plague or any other eency, for her sake Full

of this laudable and lover-like resolution, he had got on about half

a mile further, when he was suddenly checked in his rapid career by an

exciting, but in no way surprising, little incident

During the last few yards, Sir Nor on at rather a leisurely pace, considering the place