he dejection which ensued
when any one felt himself sickening, for the despair into which they
instantly fell took away their power of resistance, and left them a
much easier prey to the disorder; besides which, there was the awful
spectacle of men dying like sheep, through having caught the infection
in nursing each other. This caused the greatest mortality. On the
one hand, if they were afraid to visit each other, they perished from
neglect; indeed many houses were emptied of their inmates for want of
a nurse: on the other, if they ventured to do so, death was the
consequence. This was especially the case with such as made any
pretensions to goodness: honour made them unsparing of themselves in
their attendance in their friends' houses, where even the members of the
family were at last worn out by the moans of the dying, and succumbed to
the force of the disaster. Yet it was with those who had recovered from
the disease that the sick and the dying found most compassion. These
knew what it was from experience, and had now no fear for themselves;
for the same man was never attacked twice--never at least fatally.
And such persons not only received the congratulations of others, but
themselves also, in the elation of the moment, half entertained the vain
hope that they were for the future safe from any disease whatsoever.

An aggravation of the existing calamity was the influx from the country
into the city, and this was especially felt by the new arrivals. As
there were no houses to receive them, they had to be lodged at the hot
season of the year in stifling cabins, where the mortality raged without
restraint. The bodies of dying men lay one upon another, and half-dead
creatures reeled about the streets and gathered round all the fountains
in their longing for water. The sacred places also in which they had
quartered themselves were full of corpses of persons that had died
there, just as they were; for as the disaster passed all bounds, men,
not knowing what was to become of them, became utterly careless of
everything, whether sacred or profane. All the burial rites before in
use were entirely upset, and they buried the bodies as best they could.
Many from want of the proper appliances, through so many of their
friends having died already, had recourse to the most shameless
sepultures: sometimes getting the start of those who had raised a pile,
they threw their own dead body upon the stranger's pyre and ignited it;
some