Our readers will have followed with painful interest,the accounts we have from time to time published of the terrible epidemicwhich has, during the last two months, carried off most of the inhabitantsof the little fishing-harbour adjoining the village of Elveston. The lastsurvivors, numbering twenty-three only, out of a population which, threeshort months ago, exceeded one hundred and twenty, were removed on Wednesdaylast, under the authority of the Local Board, and safely lodged in theCounty Hospital: and the place is now veritably `a city of the dead', withouta single human voice to break its silence.

The rescuing party consisted of six sturdy fellows --fishermen from the neighbourhood -- directed by the resident Physicianof the Hospital, who came over for that purpose, heading a train of hospital-ambulances.The six men had been selected -- from a much larger number who had volunteeredfor this peaceful `forlorn hope' -- for their strength and robust health,as the expedition was considered to be, even now, when the malady has expendedits chief force, not unattended with danger.

Every precaution that science could suggest, against therisk of infection, was adopted: and the sufferers were tenderly carriedon litters, one by one, up the steep hill, and placed in the ambulanceswhich, each provided with a hospital nurse, were waiting on the level road.The fifteen miles, to the Hospital, were done at a walking-pace, as somepatients were in too prostrate a condition to bear jolting, and the journeyoccupied the whole afternoon.

The twenty-three patients consist of nine men, six women,and eight children. It has not been found possible to identify them all,as some of the children -- left with no surviving relatives -- are infants:and two men and one woman are not yet able to make rational replies, thebrain-powers being entirely in abeyance. Among a more well-to-do race,there would no doubt have been names marked on the clothes; but here nosuch evidence is forthcoming.

Besides the poor fishermen and their families, there werebut five persons to be accounted for: and it was ascertained, beyond adoubt, that all five are numbered with the dead. It is a melancholy pleasureto place on record the names of these genuine martyrs -- than whom none,surely, are more worthy to be entered on the glory-roll of England's heroes!They are as follows:

The Rev. James Burgess, M. A., and Emma his wife. He wasthe Curate at the Harbour, not thirty years old, and had been married onlytwo years. A written record was found in their house, of the dates of theirdeaths.

Next to theirs we will place the honoured name of Dr.Arthur Forester, who, on the death of the local physician, nobly facedthe imminent peril of death, rather than leave these poor folk uncaredfor in their last extremity. No record of his name, or of the date of hisdeath, was found: but the corpse was easily identified, although dressedin the ordinary fisherman's suit (which he was known to have adopted whenhe went down there), by a copy of the New Testament, the gift of his wife,which was found, placed next his heart, with his hands crossed over it.It was not thought prudent to remove the body, for burial elsewhere: andaccordingly it was at once committed to the ground, along with four othersfound in different houses, with all due reverence. His wife, whose maidenname was Lady Muriel Orme, had been married to him on the very morningon which he undertook his self-sacrificing mission.

Next we record the Rev. Walter Saunders, Wesleyan Minister.His death is believed to have taken place two or three weeks ago, as thewords `Died October 5' were found written on the wall of the room whichhe is known to have occupied -- the house being shut up, and apparentlynot having been entered for some time.

Last -- though not a whit behind the other four in gloriousself-denial and devotion to duty -- let us record the name of Father Francis,a young Jesuit Priest who had been only a few months in the place. He hadnot been dead many hours when the exploring party came upon the body, whichwas identified, beyond the possibility of doubt, by the dress, and by thecrucifix which was, like the young Doctor's Testament, clasped closelyto his heart.

Since reaching the hospital, two of the men and one ofthe children have died. Hope is entertained for all the others: thoughthere are two or three cases where the vital powers seem to be so entirelyexhausted that it is but `hoping against hope' to regard ultimate recoveryas even possible.