[Amsterdam Vallon]
In the end, they put candles on the bodies, so's their friends -- if they had any -- could know them in the dark. The city did this free of charge. It was four days and nights before the worst of the mob was finally put down. We never knew how many New Yorkers died that week before the city was finally delivered. My father once told me we was all born of blood and tribulation. So then, too, was our great city. But for those of us who had lived and died in them furious days... it was like everything we knew was mightily swept away. And no matter what they did to build this city back up again -- for the rest of time -- it would be like nobody even knew we was ever here.