The stags forget their speed, the boars their rage,
Nor can the bears the stronger herds engage:
A common faintness now invades them all,
In woods and fields promiscuously they fall.
The air exhales the stench, and, strange to say,
The ravenous birds and beasts avoid the prey;
The putrid bodies rot upon the ground,
And spread the dire contagion all around.
Meanwhile the plague acquires a larger size,
It feasts on men, and scorns a meaner prize.