Of the dying and the dead, people reasoned that there was always the odd suspicious death. They dreaded triggering the plague orders under which whole households were shut up, healthy and sick together. But as the sun rose higher in the sky the number of plague victims had also begun to climb. Scaramelli had noted fourteen deaths from plague in London in the week before James arrived at Whitehall; another eleven succumbed in the next three days. The sick began shivering about a week after exposure. Their pulse rates rose and they became lethargic, then violently ill with muscle and backaches, nausea and diarrhea. As the disease progressed they became confused and giddy; bright light became painful and their tongues were coated white. Inflamed lymph nodes, called buboes, filled with pus until the blood vessels broke. They turned black as they dried under the skin, giving the plague its sobriquet of the Black Death. The majority of the victims died within four days.
Source:
Lisle, Leanda De. "Hope and Fear" After Elizabeth: The Rise of James of Scotland and the Struggle for the Throne of England. New York: Ballantine, 2005. 185. Print.
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