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491
While
the
townspeople
were
trying
to
come
to
terms
with
this
sudden
exile
,
the
plague
set
guards
at
the
gates
and
turned
back
ships
that
were
making
for
the
port
of
Oran
.
Since
the
town
had
been
closed
,
not
a
vehicle
had
entered
it
.
From
that
day
onwards
,
you
had
the
impression
that
cars
had
started
to
go
round
in
circles
.
The
port
also
took
on
an
unusual
appearance
for
those
who
looked
at
it
from
the
height
of
the
boulevards
.
The
usual
hustle
and
bustle
which
made
this
one
of
the
leading
ports
on
the
coast
had
suddenly
halted
.
One
could
still
see
a
few
ships
which
were
held
in
quarantine
,
but
on
the
quayside
the
huge
idle
cranes
,
the
trucks
turned
on
their
sides
and
the
solitary
heaps
of
barrels
or
sacks
showed
that
trade
,
too
,
had
succumbed
to
the
plague
.
492
Despite
these
unusual
scenes
,
the
townspeople
apparently
found
it
hard
to
understand
what
was
happening
to
them
.
There
were
those
shared
feelings
,
like
separation
or
fear
,
but
people
also
went
on
giving
priority
to
their
personal
concerns
.
No
one
yet
had
really
accepted
the
idea
of
the
disease
.
Most
were
chiefly
affected
by
whatever
upset
their
habits
or
touched
on
their
interests
.
They
were
annoyed
or
irritated
by
them
,
and
these
are
not
feelings
with
which
to
fight
the
plague
.
For
example
,
their
first
reaction
was
to
blame
the
authorities
.
The
Prefect
faced
criticism
that
was
echoed
in
the
press
(
"
Couldn
t
there
be
some
relaxation
in
the
measures
proposed
?
"
)
,
and
his
reply
was
quite
unexpected
.
Until
then
,
neither
the
newspapers
nor
the
Infodoc
agency
had
had
any
official
statistics
for
the
disease
.
The
Prefect
passed
them
on
to
the
agency
,
day
by
day
,
with
the
request
that
they
should
be
published
weekly
.
493
Yet
here
too
the
public
reaction
was
not
immediate
.
The
announcement
that
there
had
been
302
deaths
in
the
third
week
of
the
plague
did
not
stir
the
imagination
.
On
the
one
hand
,
perhaps
not
all
of
them
died
of
plague
.
And
,
on
the
other
hand
,
no
one
in
the
town
knew
how
many
people
died
every
week
in
ordinary
times
.
The
town
had
a
population
of
two
hundred
thousand
inhabitants
.
People
had
no
idea
if
this
proportion
of
deaths
was
normal
.
These
are
the
sort
of
facts
that
no
one
ever
bothers
with
,
interesting
though
they
clearly
are
.
So
in
a
sense
the
public
had
no
point
of
comparison
.
Отключить рекламу
494
It
was
only
in
the
longer
term
,
by
noting
the
increase
in
the
death
rate
,
that
people
became
aware
of
the
truth
.
The
fifth
week
produced
321
deaths
and
the
sixth
345
.
These
increases
,
at
least
,
were
convincing
but
not
enough
for
the
townspeople
,
for
all
their
anxiety
,
to
abandon
entirely
the
impression
that
it
was
merely
an
incident
,
annoying
of
course
,
but
none
the
less
temporary
.
495
So
they
went
on
walking
around
the
streets
and
sitting
on
the
cafe
terraces
.
On
the
whole
,
they
were
not
cowardly
,
joking
with
each
other
more
often
than
bewailing
their
fate
,
and
pretending
to
accept
with
good
humour
discomforts
that
would
clearly
not
last
.
Appearances
were
saved
.
Yet
around
the
end
of
the
month
,
more
or
less
during
the
week
of
prayer
that
is
mentioned
below
,
more
serious
transformations
altered
the
face
of
the
town
.
First
of
all
the
Prefect
took
steps
to
deal
with
traffic
and
supplies
.
Supplies
were
limited
and
petrol
rationed
.
Measures
were
even
taken
to
save
electricity
.
Only
essential
goods
would
be
brought
by
road
or
air
to
Oran
.
As
a
result
,
traffic
decreased
progressively
until
it
almost
disappeared
altogether
,
some
shops
selling
luxury
goods
shut
down
overnight
and
others
hung
"
sold
out
"
notices
in
their
windows
,
while
queues
of
customers
formed
in
front
of
their
doors
.
496
So
Oran
took
on
an
unusual
appearance
.
The
number
of
pedestrians
rose
and
,
at
slack
times
,
many
people
,
who
had
been
reduced
to
inactivity
by
the
closing
of
shops
and
some
offices
,
filled
the
streets
and
cafes
.
497
For
the
time
being
they
were
not
yet
unemployed
,
just
on
leave
.
This
meant
that
,
for
example
,
at
three
in
the
afternoon
on
a
sunny
day
Oran
gave
the
deceptive
impression
of
a
town
on
holiday
,
in
which
the
traffic
had
been
halted
and
the
shops
closed
to
allow
a
public
demonstration
to
march
past
,
and
the
inhabitants
had
poured
out
into
the
streets
to
take
part
in
the
celebrations
.
Отключить рекламу
498
Of
course
the
cinemas
took
advantage
of
this
general
holiday
and
did
good
business
.
But
the
circuits
that
the
films
followed
in
the
département
were
interrupted
.
After
two
weeks
,
the
theatres
were
forced
to
swap
programmes
,
and
,
after
a
certain
period
of
time
,
the
cinemas
ended
up
always
showing
the
same
film
.
However
,
their
takings
did
not
fall
.
499
Finally
,
the
cafes
were
able
to
carry
on
supplying
their
customers
thanks
to
the
considerable
stocks
they
had
put
by
in
a
town
where
wines
and
spirits
are
at
the
forefront
of
trade
.
It
must
be
said
that
people
drank
a
lot
.
After
one
cafe
put
up
a
notice
saying
that
"
microbes
hate
the
honest
grape
"
,
the
idea
that
alcohol
protects
you
against
infection
something
that
the
public
already
found
it
natural
to
believe
became
still
more
firmly
anchored
in
their
minds
.
Every
night
around
two
o
clock
quite
a
large
number
of
drunkards
were
thrown
out
of
the
cafes
to
fill
the
streets
,
where
they
delivered
themselves
of
optimistic
opinions
.
500
But
in
one
sense
all
these
changes
were
so
extraordinary
and
had
happened
so
quickly
that
it
was
not
easy
to
consider
them
as
normal
and
lasting
.