In the houses were many of them;
they cumbered and poisoned the streets and the very churches. Even the
animals sickened and perished, until that great city was turned into an
open tomb. The reek of it tainted the air for miles around, so that even
those who passed it in ships far out to sea turned faint and presently
themselves sickened and died. But ere they died they bore on the fatal
gift to other lands.
Moreover, starvation fell upon the place. Though the houses were full of
riches, these would scarce suffice to buy bread for those who remained
alive. The Doge and some of his Council passed laws to lighten the
misery of the people, but soon few heeded these laws which none were
left to enforce. The vagabonds and evil-minded men who began by robbing
the deserted houses of jewels, money and plate, ended by searching them
for food and casting aside their treasures as worthless dross. It was
even said that some of them did worse things, things not to be named,
since in its extremities nature knows no shame. Only if bread and meat
were scarce, wine remained in plenty. In the midst of death men--yes,
and women--who perhaps had deserted their wives, their husbands or their
children, fearing to take the evil from them, made the nights horrible
by their drunken blasphemies and revellings, as sailors sometimes do
upon a sinking ship. Knowing that they must die, they wished to die
merry.
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