Poe's Short Stories
Quote the narrator's comments in the second paragraph of the story about life outside the abbey.
The Masque of The Red Death
The Masque of The Red Death
From the text:
When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys.
The external world could take care of itself.
The Masque of the Red Death