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the doctor, presumably had access for an account of it later.
His religion was never defined. He became a willing member
of a group who helped the doctor at the peril of having
the probability of getting the disease raised from normal
to about three times normal. People had odd reactions in
the plague. Fugitives were comfortable, the guilt-ridden
were sometimes happy. The priest who gave an early sermon
about God's punishment and this being Oran's version of the
Book of Job, who prayed for love, met a very odd death -
he died of the plague without symptoms, muttering some
peculiar words like a Christian who sees a child's eye put
out has the duty volunteer for the same. The most memorable
death in the book was that of Jean Tarrou. It came when the
plague was waning, when the rats were back in the street,
when the town had announced that the gates would be open
in two weeks. He is stricken and went down like a man, with
the words that he hoped that he didn't lose the match but
that he hoped to put up a good fight. He died shuddering
from the fever, after being happy that the doctor was honest
enough to tell him that his dawn period of good feeling
was not a good sign, but merely the normal remission of the
early morning hours.

So we have, in particular in the last story, the case
of heroism of duty; not in the context of a righteous cause;
not in the context a confidence that redemption will come
your way; not in the context of a feeling that all will be
right with the world if you will only do your duty; but

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