The
whole air shuddered with the drumming of heathen physicians in the
pagan quarters, through which the silence of long stretches of
ominously quiet houses shouted its meaning. At times frantic barefoot
flights could be glimpsed as households deserted stricken houses, but
whatever outcry arose came from bedsides. Ascalon fled as a frightened
animal flees, silently and under cover.
They rode now through a shrieking wind, burdened with sallow smoke and
dreadful odors. Denser and denser the cloud grew till the streets
ahead were hidden in yellow vapor and near-by houses loomed with dim
outlines as if far off, and even the sounds of death and disaster
became choked in the immense prevalence of smell. Blinded, with scarf
and kerchief wrapped over mouth and nostril, the fleeing party swept
down upon the very heart of that stifling mystery. Through it
presently, as the houses thinned out, they saw cores of great heat
surmounted by black-tipped flames that crackled savagely. Momus, now
in the lead, turned sharply to his right and the next instant had the
wind behind him. Almost involuntarily each member of the party looked
back. Outside the breach of the broken wall, standing clear to view
with the wind from the hills sweeping townward from them, were
diabolical figures, naked and black, feeding immense pyres with
hideous fuel.
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