File:Old Saint Paul's - a tale of the plague and the fire (1841) (14591938920).jpg

Identifier: oldsaintpaulstal01ains (find matches)
Title: Old Saint Paul's : a tale of the plague and the fire
Year: 1841 (1840s)
Authors: Ainsworth, William Harrison, 1805-1882 Franklin, John, fl. 1800-1861, ill Zaehnsdorf (Firm), binder. IU-R
Subjects: Plague Fires
Publisher: London : Hugh Cunningham, Saint Martin's Place, Trafalgar Square
Contributing Library: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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nkind of the scourge should die,My coffins will sell,—so what care I ? Drink the plague / Drink the plague ! Loud acclamations followed the song, and thedoctor, who was filled with disgust and as-tonishment, opened the door. He absolutelyrecoiled at the scene presented to his gaze. Inthe midst of a large room, the sides of whichwere crowded with coffins piled to the veryceiling, sat about a dozen personages, with pipesin their mouths, and flasks and glasses beforethem. Their seats were coffins, and their tablewas a coffin set upon a bier. Seated on apyramid of coffins, gradually diminishing in sizeas the pile approached its apex, Chowles waswaving a glass in one hand, and a bottle in theother, when the doctor made his appearance. A more hideous personage cannot be ima-gined than the coffin-maker. He was clothedin a suit of rusty black, which made his ske-leton limbs look yet more lean and cadaver-ous. His head was perfectly bald, and itsyellow skin, divested of any artificial cover-
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THE COFFIN-MAKER. 63 ing, glistened like polished ivory. His throatwas long and scraggy, and supported a head un-rivalled for ugliness. His nose had been brokenin his youth, and was almost compressed flatwith his face. His few remaining teeth wereyellow and discoloured, with large gaps betweenthem. His eyes were bright, and set in deepcavernous recesses, and, now that he was morethan half intoxicated, gleamed with unnaturallustre. The friends by whom he was surround-ed were congenial spirits,— searchers, watch-men, buriers, apothecaries, and other wretches,who, like himself, rejoiced in the pestilence, be-cause it was a source of profit to them. At one corner of the room, with a part-emp-tied glass before her, and several articles in herlap, which she hastily pocketed on the entranceof the doctor, sat the plague-nurse. MotherMalmayns; and Leonard thought her, if pos-sible, more villanous-looking than her com-panions. She was a rough, raw-boned woman,with sandy hair and light brows,

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