Blaize promised obedience, adding in a supplicating tone, “Leonard, if I were you, I would not go to the Examiner of Health.  Poor Stephen may not have the plague, after all.  It’s a dreadful thing to be imprisoned for a month, for that’s the time appointed by the Lord Mayor.  Only a week ago I passed several houses in Holborn, shut up on account of the plague, with a watchman at the door, and I never shall forget the melancholy faces I saw at the windows.  It was a dreadful spectacle, and has haunted me ever since.”

“It cannot be helped,” rejoined Leonard, with a sigh.  “If we disobey the Lord Mayor’s orders, and neglect giving information, we shall all be sent to Newgate, while poor Stephen will be taken to the pest-house.  Besides, the searchers will be here before morning.  They are sure to learn what has happened from Doctor Hodges.”

“True, true,” replied Blaize; “I had forgotten that.  Let me go with you, dear Leonard.  I dare not remain here longer.”

“What! would you leave your kind good master, at a time like this, when he most needs your services?” rejoined Leonard, reproachfully.  “Out, cowardly hound!  I am ashamed of you.  Shake off your fears, and be a man.  You can but die once; and what matters it whether you die of the plague or the cholic?”

“It matters a great deal,” replied Blaize.  “I am afraid of nothing but the plague.  I am sure I shall be its next victim in this house.  But you are right—­I cannot desert my kind master, nor my old mother.  Farewell, Leonard.  Perhaps we may never meet again.  I may be dead before you come back.  I feel very ill already.”

“No wonder, after all the stuff you have swallowed,” returned Leonard.  “But pluck up your courage, or you will bring on the very thing you are anxious to avoid.  As many people have died from fear as from any other cause.  One word before I go.  If any one should get into the house by scaling the yard-wall, or through the window, instantly alarm our master.”

“Certainly,” returned Blaize, with a look of surprise, “But do you expect any one to enter the house in that way?”

“Ask no questions, but do as I bid you,” rejoined Leonard, opening the door, and about to go forth.

“Stop a moment,” cried Blaize, detaining him, and drawing from his pocket a handful of simples.  “Won’t you take some of them with you to guard against infection?  There’s wormwood, woodsorrel, masterwort, zedoary, and angelica; and lastly, there is a little bottle of the sovereign preservative against the plague, as prepared by the great Lord Bacon, and approved by Queen Elizabeth.  Won’t you take that?”

“I have no fear,” replied Leonard, shutting the door in his face.  And as he lingered for a moment while it was locked, he heard Blaize say to himself, “I must go and take three more rufuses and a large dose of diascordium.”