The fearful rapidity with which the infection spread caused a panic
throughout the city, and even the boldest were not proof against the
general terror. If any man felt himself sickening of the plague, he at
once gave up all hope, and made no effort to fight against the
disease. Few were found brave enough to undertake the duty of nursing
the sick, and those who did generally paid for their devotion with
their lives. In most cases the patient was left to languish alone, and
perished by neglect, while his nearest and dearest avoided his
presence, and had grown so callous that they had not a sigh or a tear
left for the death of husband, or child, or friend. The few who
recovered, now free from risk of mortal infection, did what they could
to help their suffering fellow-citizens.
The mischief was aggravated by the overcrowded state of the city,
especially among those who had come in from the country, and were
living in stifling huts through the intense heat of a southern summer.
Here the harvest of death fell thickest, and the corpses lay heaped
together, while dying wretches crawled about the public streets, and
encumbered the fountain-sides, to which they had dragged themselves in
their longing for drink. All sense of public decency, all regard for
laws, human or divine, was lost.
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