As the Distemper which has seized that Person, threatens to attack them; as the Contagion communicates it self with extreme Quickness; as the Danger is almost equal to him that suffers, and to those who approach him; and as those who tend and help him have no other Prospect than that of following him in a few Days; they take at first the barbarous Resolution, either to drive him out of the House, or to fly and desert it themselves, and to leave him alone without Assistance or Relief, abandoned to Hunger, Thirst, and all that can render Death the more tormenting. Thus Wives treat their Husbands, and Husbands their Wives, Children their Parents, and Parents their Children: Vain Precaution, inspired by Love of Life, and Horror of Death! By that time they take their Resolution, they have already catch'd the subtle Effluvia of the fatal Poison they would secure themselves from; they are soon sensible of its Malignity, a speedy Death is the Punishment of their Cruelty and Baseness: Others have the same Hardness of Heart towards them; they are forced into the open Street in their Turn, or are left alone in their Houses to perish without Help. Hence proceeds that infinite Number of Sick, of each Sex, and of every Age, State, and Condition, who are found lying in the Streets and publick Places. If all are not cruelly driven out of their own Houses by their Relations or Friends, they prevent that Cruelty; and lest they should run the Hazard of being left alone at home, by the Flight of those Relations or Friends, when they are become quite helpless, they repair to the Hospitals; where not getting Entrance, nay, not being able to get near the Gates, by reason of the Multitudes of Sick, which have got thither before; and who finding them already full, lye down on the Pavement, and stop up all the Avenues; they are obliged to seek room for themselves farther off, among the putrified dead Bodies; the Sight and Stench of which serve to hasten their Death, the only End of this Distemper. These Extremities put the Sheriffs upon double Diligence, to get the New Hospital in the Alleys of the _Mall_ finished: In the mean time, they cause large Tents to be pitched upon that _Esplanade_ without the Town, which is between the Gate _des Faineants_, and the Monastery of the _Capuchins_, where they order as many Mattresses to be put, as the Tents will hold. No sooner are those Tents up, and the Mattresses placed, but they are filled with so many poor Infected, that several throw themselves upon one Mattress: A greater Number is requisite to supply them all; and the Misfortune is, that there is neither Straw nor Linnen to be had to make them with.