The Massachusetts spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1831-1858, 1832-07-25
ungenerously attacked and cut off in the


rear OF his army.
From Greece the plague passed into TIA
ly. The Venitians, having lost 100 900
souls, fed from their city, and left it almost
unlnhabited. At Florence, 10000 persons
died in one year. Among these was the
historian Giovanni Villain, whose writings
we have already referred to. He was one
OF the most distinguished men of his age !;
and his historical works are looked upon as
correct and valuable. He was the annalist
of this pestiience almost down to the day of
his falling victim to it. France next be-
came exposed to its ravages. At Avignon
the mortality was horrible. In the strong
language of Stow, people died bleeding at
the nose, mouth, and fundament; so that
rivers ran with blood, and streams Of pu-
trid gore issued from the graves and sepul-
chres of the dead. When it first broke out
there, no fewer than sixty-six of the Car
neilte friars died before any body knew
how, So that it was imagined they had muir
dered one another. OF the members of the
English College at Avignon, not one was
'left alive; and of the whole inhabitants of
the city, not one in FIVE. According 10 a
statement. or bill of mortality laid befoi e
the pope, there died in one day 1919, and in
another 400 persons. The malady proceed
ed northward through France, till it reach
ed Pals. where it cut off $4,000. About
the same period it spread into GERMANY,
where Its raVages are estimated at the enor-
nous amount of 1240O,OOO souls. At Lu-
bee alone, according to the concurr;ng ac-
counts of several writers, 10000 persons
were swept away in one year, Of whom
1900 arc reported to have died in the space
of four honrs.
AT last this fearful scourge began to be
felt in England. About the beginning of
August, l349,iit appeared in the sea- port
towns on the coasts of Dorset, Devon, and
Somersetshire, whence it proceeded to Bris-
tol. The people of Gloucestershire imme
dlately interdicted all intercourse with Bris-
tol, but in vaiii. The disease ran, or rather
flew over Worcestershire. Thence +,
spread to Oxford; and about the Ist Of No
vember reached London. Finally, it spread
itself all over England, scattering every
where such destruction, that out of the
whole population, hardly one person in ten
was left alive.
Incredible as this statement may appear,
1t seems borne out by the details of contem-
porary annalists. In the church-yard of
Yarmouth 7052 persons, who died of the
plague, were buried in one year. In the
city of Norwich, 1884 persons died in six
months, between the LIST of January and the
LIST Of July. In the city of York the mortal
ity was equal. We find no general state
ment Of the total amount of the mortality in
London; but there are details sufficient to
shew that it must have been horrible be-
vnnh INN atinn
IN pits, forty, fifty, or sixty into one; and
large fields were employed as burial places,
the churchyards being insufficient for the
purpose. No attempt was made TO perform
this last office with the usual care and de-
cency. Deep and broad bitches were made,
in which the dead bodies were laid in rows,
and covered with earth, and surmounted
with another layer of bodies, which also
was covered. Sir Walter Nanny Whose
name is so well known from his connection
with the affecting incident of the surrender
of Calais to Edward III, benevolently pur-
chased and appropriated a burial ground,
near Smithfeld, in which single place more
than fifty thousand people were buried.
This pestllence gave occasion to some d.
piomatlc intercourse between England and
France, which is strikingly characteristic
OF the manners of the age. While the NOR
tally was raging in those countries, Pope
Clement vi, never ceased importuning the
monarchs of both to put an end to their mu-
tual hostility, and, by doing so, 10 avoid the
continuance of calamity sent by Heaven
to punish the sins OF mankind. Edward and
Philip were induced by these pious exhor-
taslons to appoint commissioners, who met
between Calais and st. Omers to negotiate
a treaty. The French insisted on the res
toration of Calais, of the raising of its fortifi-
cations; proposition which the English
would not listen TO. At last, however, a
truce was agreed upon for six months, till
September following, in order to allow time
to negotiate for peace; and it was further
agreed, that if, at the end of the truce, a
final treaty was not concluded, the crown of
France was to be brought to convenient
place within that realm, and the right to it
decided by Il pitched battle, without further
appeal. The death of the French king,
however, which happened in August, 1850,
before The expiration of the truce, put an
end to this smooth and amicable plan of &C.
commodation.
The mortality fell chiefly upon the lower
classes of society, and among them, pTinci-
pally on old men, women, and children. 1t
was remarked that not one king or prince of
any nation died of. the plague; and of the
English nobility and people of distinction,
very few were cut off by it. Among the
higher orders Of the church the deaths were
rare; but such havoc was made among the
inferior clergy, that numbers of churches
were left wholly void, and without any one
to perform divine service, or any offices Of
religion. At the same time, all suits and
proceedings in the courts Of Justice ceased
and the sitting of parliament was intermit-
ted for more than two years.
This terrible visitation was eyerv where
attended by total dissolution of the bonds
OF society. An excellent old writer gives
the following eloquent description Of the
state OF England I'VE are told the infiu-
ence OF this disease was so contagious, that
1t not only infected by touch or breathing
but transtused its malgnity into the very
beams of light, and darted death from the
eyes; and the very seats and garments O
such proved fatal. Wherefore parents Cor
SOCK their children, and wives their hus
bands nor would physicians here max,
their visits, for neither were they able to d,
good to others, and they were almost Ger
tam thereby to destroy themselves. Evel
The priests also, for the same horrid consid
Grafton, forbore either to administer the sa
craments or absolve the dying peniten,
but yet neither priests, nor physicians, no
any other who sought thus to escape, di
ma their caution of any advantage: 70
death not only raped wit hout donre as ,,al