The stores were shut up, for their owners were gone away or dead.
'Fearful evil! In the briefest space it struck down and swept away even the most vigorous victim.

A slight indisposition, then an hour of fever, then the hideous delirium, then--the Yellow Death! On the street corners, and in the squares, lay sick men, suddenly overtaken by the disease; and even corpses, distorted and rigid.

Food failed.

Meat spoiled in a few hours in the fetid and pestiferous air, and turned black.
'Fearful clamors issue from many houses; then after a season they cease, and all is still: noble, self-sacrificing men come with the coffin, nail it up, and carry it away, to the graveyard.

In the night stillness reigns.