The Sun.
London, England, 1830-04-16 00:00:00

CITY OF THE PLAGUE.

We were closely confined within the walls of
the consulate,-anil all persons from without were .
as rigidly excluded. The gate which opened
from the court into the street wasstnietty closed.
and the only communication was through a hatch-
door cut in it. The key of this was not en -
trusted even to the servants. Each of the com-
pany took charge of it in his turn for a day,
and it was his business to see that everything
supposed capable of communicating the con-
tagion was duly purified before it was allowed
to pass into the house. These precau-
tions were at any rate useful, as giving a feeling
of security ; but I have no doubt that the dis-
tinction between such objects as are called " sus-
ceptible" (to use the technical phrase), and
such as are not, is frequently arbitrari; and that
the index exputgatorsus in this, as in other in-
stances, is tinged by prejudice and caprice. Hap-
pily, some of the art►cles of most frequent use,
such as bread, iron, and wood, for example,
were allowed to pass without suspicion ; but
meat and all animal substances, and money of
every kind, were thrown with iron tongs or
shovels into a large tub, and compelled to pass
through the watery ordeal. Letters, books, and
papers, on the other hand, are purified by fire,
or at least by smoke, being placed on a sort of
chafing-dish, and fumigated with a compound of
drugs which is anything but aromatic ; and if it
should be necessary to affix a signature to any
document, a plate of glass is introduced between
the paper and the hand of the writer. The
cats, who in their nocturnal rambles are sup-
posed to carry with them the seeds of contagion,
are condemned to indiscriminate slaughter when-
ever they are seen creeping alot►g the walls or on
the housetops; and when terror is at its height,
even the flies are objects of alarm, and the sports
of Domitian are revived.—Fuller's Tour in the
Turkish Empire.

SINGULAR ADVENTURR IN ()ASK

CASTLE.

Surrounded by his sleeping companions, with
no light but what the expiring embers afforded,
the mind of Wallace became overshadowed with
melancholy forebodings. Though in the late
conflict he had destroyed a great number of the
enemy, his own little band had been almost an-
nihilated ; and, in his present situation, he saw
little probability of filling up their places with
men on whom he could put the same dependence.
It was now past midnight; and the flame that
still lingered about the remains of the almost extin-
guished faggots, continued, at intervals, to throw
its pale and flickering light on the ruinous walls
of the castle, when Wallace was suddenly startled
by the shadow of a human figure. Though
broken and indistinct at first, yet the moon,
which was slowly emerging from behind a cloud,
rendered it every moment more apparent. From
the feet to the shoulders, which was all of it that
was visible, it seemed to be of uncommon di-
mensions ; and what more particularly rivetted-
the attention of the forlorn chief, a human head
hung dangling from its hand, in a manner that
gave it the appearance of something superna-
tural. While gazing with intense anxiety on
this singular object, its hand was slowly raised,
and the head, which it held, after striking the
helmet of Wallace, fell with considerable vio-
lence among the dying embers before him.
Snatching it up, he discovered, by the light of
the moon, the pale and ghastly features of the
" ill-fated Fawdon," one of his followers whom
he had lately slain, on strong suspicion of trea-
chery. Turning towards the place from whence
it was thrown, he observed the figure of a man
endeavouring to descend by a broken part of the
wall. In the excitement of the moment, he
hurled the head after it, and, drawing his sword,
hastened from the castle in pursuit of the strange
intruder.

Henry, or his authority, in narrating the above
circumstance, gives way to the popular belief of
his time, and describes it as the real apparition
of the late faithless associate ; but this evidently
arises from that love for the marvellous peculiar
to the age. When stripped of the poetical em-
bellishments with which it is clothes], the story
simply appears to have been this :—The Eng-
lish, on coming to the headless body of Fawdon,
naturally conceived that the Scots had quarrelled
among themselves ; and some one thinking it
probable, front the size, that the deceased might
be Wallace, for whose head a consider:Ale re-
ward was offered, took care to secure the prize.
The impatience of Butler for revenge made him
think of a night-attack, provided they could dis-
cover the enemy ; and the horns, therefore,
which had been taken from those Scots who had
fallen in the conflict, were made use of as a ruse
ato i
c partyee n. t
or entrapThe
theirh
et h e
soldier,
into
wmht
el
oi
neh belief,acoming d
got
tt othha teth
hei tiera w(a aissni sttao-
his possession, appears to have been one of the
scouts sent in search of the fugitives ; and no
doubt, eager to ascertain the value of his capture,
had ventured forward with more confidence than
his companions. Disappointment at finding the
Scottish chief alive, no doubt, induced him to
throw the head ; and the terror which his name
inspired made him likewise think it prudent to
effect his retreat.—Constable's Miscellany, Voi,
LIII. Life of Sir William Wallace.