I was resident in this city during the year 1793.

Many motives contributed to detain me, though departure was easy and commodious, and my friends were generally solicitous for me to go.

It is not my purpose to enumerate these motives, or to dwell on my present concerns and transactions, but merely to compose a narrative of some incidents with which my situation made me acquainted.
Returning one evening, somewhat later than usual, to my own house, my attention was attracted, just as I entered the porch, by the figure of a man reclining against the wall at a few paces distant.

My sight was imperfectly assisted by a far-off lamp; but the posture in which he sat, the hour, and the place, immediately suggested the idea of one disabled by sickness.

It was obvious to conclude that his disease was pestilential.