of a respectability which is a little higher than the
tram and financially not quite equal to the cab.
Then, at that magic touch of the west wind the house-fly
retires to his own peculiar Inferno, wherever that
may be, the mosquito and the gnat pause in their work
of darkness and blood to concert fresh and more bloodthirsty
deeds, and even the joyous and wicked flea tires of
the war dance and lays down his weary head to snatch
a hard-earned nap. July drags on, and terrible
August treads the burning streets bleaching the very
dust up on the pavement, scourging the broad campagna
with fiery lashes of heat. Then the white-hot
sky reddens in the evening when it cools, as the white
iron does when it is taken from the forge. Then
at last, all those who can escape from the condemned
city flee for their lives to the hills, while those
who must face the torment of the sun and the poison
of the air turn pale in their sufferings, feebly curse
their fate and then grow listless, weak and irresponsible
as over-driven galley slaves, indifferent to everything,
work, rest, blows, food, sleep and the hope of release.
The sky darkens suddenly. There is a sort of horror
in the stifling air. People do not talk much,
and if they do are apt to quarrel and sometimes to
kill one another without warning. The plash of
the fountains has a dull sound like the pouring out
of molten lead. The horses’ hoofs strike
visible sparks out of the grey stones in broad daylight.
Many houses are shut, and one fancies that there must
be a dead man in each whom no one will bury.
A few great drops of rain make ink-stains on the pavement
at noon, and there is an exasperating, half-sulphurous
smell abroad. Late in the afternoon they fall
again. An evil wind comes in hot blasts from
all quarters at once—then a low roar like
an earthquake and presently a crash that jars upon
the overwrought nerves—great and plashing
drops again, a sharp short flash—then crash
upon crash, deluge upon deluge, and the worst is over.
Summer has received its first mortal wound. But
its death is more fatal than its life. The noontide
heat is fierce and drinks up the moisture of the rain
and the fetid dust with it. The fever-wraith rises
in the damp, cool night, far out in the campagna,
and steals up to the walls of the city, and over them
and under them and into the houses. If there are
any yet left in Rome who can by any possibility take
themselves out of it, they are not long in going.
Till that moment, there has been only suffering to
be borne; now, there is danger of something worse.
Now, indeed, the city becomes a desert inhabited by
white-faced ghosts. Now, if it be a year of cholera,
the dead carts rattle through the streets all night
on their way to the gate of Saint Lawrence, and the
workmen count their numbers when they meet at dawn.
But the bad days are not many, if only there be rain
enough, for a little is worse than none. The nights
lengthen and the September gales sweep away the poison-mists