"Your cities will be laid waste, the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate.

And what will ye do, oh men of Preston, in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far ?" The rabble had rushed past by this time, still hooting and howling at the wild, fiery-eyed enthusiast at their head.
Ralph walked on to the town and speedily discovered the cause of the black cloud which overhung it.

An epidemic of an alarming nature had broken out in various quarters, and fears were entertained that it was none other than a great pestilence which had been brought to England from the East.
Indescribably eerie was the look of Preston that Sunday morning.

Men and boys were bearing torches through the streets to disinfect them, and it was the smoke from these torches that hung like a cloud above the town.

Through the thick yellow atmosphere the shapes of people passing to and fro in the thoroughfares stood out large and black.
IV.