title: The Scourging Angel: The Black Death in the British Isles
author:  Benedict Gummer 
description: Born in 1978, BENEDICT GUMMER took a Starred Double First in History at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he was an exhibitioner and scholar. He lives and works in Ipswich and London, where he runs a corporate responsibility consultancy.
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  ##### www.blackmask.com
  
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  A Thousand Deaths  
    
  
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  # A Thousand Deaths
  
  
  ### JACK LONDON
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
  
  
  I had been in the water about an hour, and cold, exhausted, with a terrible
  cramp in my right calf, it seemed as though my hour had come. Fruitlessly
  struggling against the strong ebb tide, I had beheld the maddening procession
  of the water-front lights slip by, but now a gave up attempting to breast the
  stream and contended myself with the bitter thoughts of a wasted career, now
  drawing to a close.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It had been my luck to come of good, English stock, but of parents whose
  account with the bankers far exceeded their knowledge of child-nature and the
  rearing of children. While born with a silver spoon in my mouth, the blessed
  atmosphere of the home circle was to me unknown. My father, a very learned man
  and a celebrated antiquarian, gave no thought to his family, being co