They never saw him again. Two days later they learned that he himself
was dead of the pest.
That night they buried Lady Carleon in her son's grave, which Dick had
helped to prepare for her, since no sexton could be bribed to do the
work. Indeed these were all busy enough attending to the interment of
the great ones of Venice. In that churchyard alone they saw six buryings
in progress. Also after the priest had read his hurried Office, as
they left the gates, whence Lady Carleon's bearers had already fled
affrighted, they met more melancholy processions heralded by a torch or
two whereof the light fell upon some sheeted and uncoffined form.
"'Twixt earthquake and plague Murgh the Helper is helping very well,"
said Grey Dick grimly, and Hugh only groaned in answer.
Such was the beginning of the awful plague which travelled from the East
to Venice and all Europe and afterward became known by the name of
the Black Death. Day by day the number of its victims increased;
the hundreds of yesterday were the thousands of the morrow. Soon the
graveyards were full, the plague pits, long and deep, were full, and the
dead were taken out to sea by shiploads and there cast into the ocean.
At length even this could not be done, since none were forthcoming
who would dare the task. For it became known that those who did so
themselves would surely die.
So where folk fell, there they lay.
Pages:
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289