Military life in Italy : sketches - Societa italiana di storia militare

378 MILITARY LIFE.
reason they believed all the more firmly that the medicines
were poisons, and the physicians assassins. They preferred to
die quite abandoned, without any assistance or comforts. They
did not believe in contagion, and so they lived together
in any
way, the sick and the well ; many families in dark, horrible
dwellings, which were the terrible hearthstones of the pestilence.
They concealed the bodies to prevent
themselves from
being isolated, or because they disliked the idea of seeing them
buried in cemeteries, instead of in the churches, as is the custom
in many places ; or, from the obstinate conviction that
those attacked by cholera often appear to be dead when they
are not, and come back to life after a time. They resorted to
every device to elude the researches of the authorities. They
often resisted with force the public agents who came to drag
the decayed bodies from the houses. They
threw these bodies
into wells, or buried them secretly inside the houses. In some
places, either from carelessness on the part of the authorities,
or from neglect on the part of the people who wished to assist
at these pious offices, the bodies, although not refused by the
relatives, were left several days in the houses, were thrown and
left uncovered in the cemeteries, or covered with
a few shovelfuls
of earth, so that the air all about was poisoned, and no one
could be found who was willing to approach the place, thus
making it necessary to select other spots for interment. The
common superstitions were secretly fermented by the Bourbons
and clergy. All the agents of the public force, the carabineers,
soldiers, inspectors of the custom-house, and government
officials were suspected as poisoners. They scattered,
and posted up in the streets seditious proclamations exciting
the people to revenge and bloodshed. Little by
little the