"I [name] do declare that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up arms against the king, and that I do abhor that traitorous position of taking arms by his authority against his person; and that I will conform to the liturgy of the Church of England, as it is now by law established. And I do declare that I do hold there lies no obligation, upon me or on any other person, from the oath commonly called The solemn league and covenant, to endeavour any ... alteration of government either in church or state, and that the same was in itself an unlawful oath, and imposed upon the subjects of this realm against the known laws and liberties of this kingdom." THE PLAGUE IN LONDON (1665). By DANIEL DE FOE. +Source.+--Bohn Edition, pp. 14-16, 44-48. The city itself began now to be visited too, I mean within the walls; but the number of people there were indeed extremely lessened, by so great a multitude having been gone into the country; and even all this month of July, they continued to flee, though not in such multitudes as formerly. In August, indeed, they fled in such a manner, that I began to think there would be really none but magistrates and servants left in the city. As they fled now out of the city, so I should observe, that the court removed early, viz., in the month of June, and went to Oxford, where it pleased God to preserve them; and the distemper did not, as I heard of, as much as touch them; for which I cannot say that I ever saw they showed any great token of thankfulness, and hardly anything of reformation, though they did not want being told that their crying vices might, without breach of charity, be said to have gone far in bringing that terrible judgment upon the whole nation.