ncert. Yea, if all sins had not already been invented, they
would have been invented here, for there was no road they would not have
followed in their wickedness. The most unnatural vices flourished among
them, and even such rare sins as necromancy, magic, and exorcism were
familiar to them, for there were many who hoped to obtain from the
powers of evil the protection which heaven had not vouchsafed them.

Whatever had to do with mutual assistance or pity had vanished from
their minds; each one had thoughts only for himself. He who was sick
was looked upon as a common foe, and if it happened that any one was
unfortunate enough to fall down on the street, exhausted by the first
fever-paroxysm of the plague, there was no door that opened to him,
but with lance-pricks and the casting of stones they forced him to drag
himself out of the way of those who were still healthy.

And day by day the plague increased, the summer's sun blazed down upon
the town, not a drop of rain fell, not the faintest breeze stirred. From
corpses that lay rotting in the houses and from corpses that were only
half-buried in the earth, there was engendered a suffocating stench
which mingled with the stagnant air of the streets and attracted swarms
and clouds of ravens and crows until the walls and roofs were black with
them. And round about the wall encircling the town sat strange,
large, outlandish birds from far away with beaks eager for spoil and
expectantly crooked claws; and they sat there and looked down with their
tranquil greedy eyes as if only waiting for the unfortunate town to turn
into one huge carrion-pit.

It was just eleven weeks since the plague had broken out, when the
watchman in the tower and other people who were standing in high places
saw a strange procession wind from the plain into the streets of the new
town between the smoke-blackened stone walls and the black ash-heaps of
the wooden houses. A multitude of people! At least, six hundred or more,
men and women, old and young, and they carried big black crosses between
them and above their heads floated wide banners, red as fire and blood.
They sing as they are moving onward and heartrending notes of despair
rise up into the silent sultry air.

Brown, gray, and black are their clothes, but all wear a red badge on
their breast. A cross it proves to be, as they draw nearer. For all the
time they are drawing nearer. They press upward along the steep road,
flanked by walls, wh