e tanks in the
courtyard. Then all fill their cooking and drinking vessels, but in
such an untidy way that I felt not the slightest inclination to
drink. One man was ladling out the water with a dirty pot, while
another dabbled in the tank with his filthy hands; and some even put
their dirty feet on the run and washed them, so that some of the
water ran back into the tank. This receptacle is moreover never
cleaned, so that dirt accumulates upon dirt, and the only way to
obtain clear water is by filtering it.

On the second day of my residence here I was exceedingly surprised
to observe that the courtyard, the staircases, the rooms, etc. were
being cleaned and swept with particular care. The mystery was soon
solved; the commissioner appeared with a great stick, and paused at
the threshold of the door to see that the linen, clothes, etc. were
hung up to air, the books opened, and the letters or papers
suspended by strings. No idea can be formed of the stupid nervous
fear of this commissioner. For instance, on passing through the
first room on his way to my apartment, he saw the stalk of a bunch
of grapes lying on the ground. With fearful haste he thrust this
trifling object aside with his stick, for fear his foot should
strike against it in passing; and as he went he continually held his
stick in rest, to keep us plague-struck people at a respectful
distance.

On the seventh day of our incarceration we were all sent to our
rooms at nine o'clock in the morning. Doors and windows were then
locked, and great chafing-dishes were brought, and a dreadful odour
of brimstone, herbs, burnt feathers, and other ingredients filled
the air. After we had been compelled to endure this stifling
atmosphere for four or five minutes, the windows and doors were once
more opened. A person of a consumptive habit could scarcely have
survived this inhuman ordeal.

On the ninth day the men were drawn up in a row, to undergo an
examination by the doctor. The old gentleman entered the room, with
a spy-glass in one hand and a stick in the other, to review the
troop. Every man had to strike himself a blow on the chest and
another in the side; if he could do this without feeling pain, it
was considered a sign of health, because the plague-spots appear
first on these parts of the body. On the same day, the women were
led into a large room, where a great female dragoon was waiting for
us to put us through a similar ceremony. Neither m