Sometimes a window would be opened from above, and a doleful voice would cry aloud in grief or anguish of mind, or some command would be shouted to the watchman beneath, or there would be a piercing cry for the dead cart as it rumbled by.

The boys at last grew used to the sound of the bell and the wheels.

Go where they would they could not avoid hearing one or another as the men went about their dismal errand.
It seemed less terrible after a time than it had done at first, and the bold spirit within them came back.
They wended their way northward, avoiding the narrower thoroughfares and keeping to the broader streets.

Even these were often very narrow and ill smelling, so that the brothers had recourse to their vinegar bottle or swallowed a spoonful of Venice treacle before venturing down.

Once they were forced to turn aside out of their way to avoid a heap of corpses that had been brought out from a narrow alley to wait for the cart.