Like a hideous phantom stalking the streets at noon-day, and scaring all in its path, Death took his course through London, and selected his prey at pleasure.

The alarm was further increased by the predictions confidently made as to the vast numbers who would be swept away by the visitation; by the prognostications of astrologers; by the prophesyings of enthusiasts; by the denunciations of preachers, and by the portents and prodigies reported to have occurred.

During the long and frosty winter preceding this fatal year, a comet appeared in the heavens, the sickly colour of which was supposed to forebode the judgment about to follow.
Blazing stars and other meteors, of a lurid hue and strange and preternatural shape, were likewise seen.

The sun was said to have set in streams of blood, and the moon to have shown without reflecting a shadow; grisly shapes appeared at night--strange clamours and groans were heard in the air--hearses, coffins, and heaps of unburied dead were discovered in the sky, and great cakes and clots of blood were found in the Tower moat; while a marvellous double tide occurred at London Bridge.

All these prodigies were currently reported, and in most cases believed.
The severe frost, before noticed, did not break up till the end of February, and with the thaw the plague frightfully increased in violence.