‘Go home, Thomas!’ I said. ‘You are in peril here.’
It is Mall who tells of the tragedy of the fearful plague coming to her village, possibly brought from London by a parcel of dress patterns. She tells dramatically and powerfully of how the villagers lived and died, and of their collective heroism in containing the disease. But this is also a moving love story, for Mall must not go to meet her beloved Thomas, for fear of passing the sickness on to him.