Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-05-07

diately after my execution, but fearing
that it might have a bad effect upon the
trial Of A. c. Goss, l leaveit with my
council with the request that he retain it
for five years after my death and then
give it to the world
Translated for the Free Press.
The Black Plague.
from the French Of Fleury.l
The less of the battle of Crecy and the
capture of the city of Calais which fol-
lowed i'll the same year, were not the
only disasters which came upon France
during the reign of Phillip of Valois; n
terrible epidemic known as the Black
Plague, after having ravaged some parts
of Europe, advanced suddenly upon
Languedoc, and caused successfully in
all the provinces most frIghtful NOR
tality. In all directions there were to be
seen miserable victims who having been
stricken by the disease were dying with
lamentable cries death with all its hor-
rors WAS to be seen in many forms.
Many might be seen falling in the streets
or in the highways, stricken suddenly
and without remedy with the disease
others were exhausted by a devouring
fever, while during occasional lucid in
tervals they would pray for death to put
an end to their excruciating torments.
| The most sacred ties of families seemed
suspended or even entirely effaced moth
ers would not approach the cradles of
their sick infants except with fear and
loathing and every one avoided with
equal care meetings or contact with rela-
| tions or friends, for fear of contracting or
of communicating the poisonous conta-
gion and even with all such caution no
one was safe from the epidemic in those
sections where it was raging. Soonthere
We're to be found but very few indiyid-
uals who had sufficient courage to render
aid to their afflicted neighbors and the
dead remained without sepulture, so
great was their number, all of which add
ed to the horror of the scene Never,
finally, was there such spectacle of
desolation and death witnessed i'll the
world
In the midst Of this calamity which
menaced every one. and which nothing
seemed able to control, there was large
class of people, who, almost crazed with
despair, and Indignation that God wculd
permit such a destruction of life, poured
forth imprecatisns against Providence.
instead of prayers and invocations in
their troubles, as religion taught them to
do for there is no doubt that earnest
prayer is remedy :or the troubles of
life. and it is very rare that those who
pray with honesty Of purpose and with
fervor do no. receive some alienation of
distress.
Meanwhile the terror of the people,
manifested in such acts Of despair and
impiety, gave increased virulence to the
already deadly character of the epidemic,
which seemed. every day, to be extend
ing its ravaSes over the country. Then
Phillip, hoping TO bring this period OF
insanity to Il conclusion, ordered that the
blasphemous. for thus were those people
named who profaned the Divinity by
their terrible utterances. should have
their upper lips split with sharp knife,
that all might be able to recognize them
at first sight.
At the same time other unfortunate
creatures, victims Of horrible infatua-
tion, declared that the pestilence was
caused 10y the jews, wliurn they accused
of having poisoned their wells and foun-
tains in order to destroy the Christians,
giving thus an appearance of reality to
the accusations laid against The lepers in
the reign Of Phillip Longshanks soon
this frenzy led to the most terrible bar
barism 4; all the Jews who fell into the
hands of the people were horribly mas
sacred, or were burned ON iron CRATES.
In almost all countries where the de
structive pestilence known as The plague
prevailed, in all times from the most an
cient To our own age, the same scenes oI
horror, excited by vague reports OF pois-
oning, have been rc enacted, accompanied
by similar circumstances 1t seems that
when the people beheld themselves men-
aced by calamity which they could
neither avert nor overcome, and OF which
the cause wGs unknown to them, their
rage became excited against each other,
and the effects of this condition OF things
did not render less rapid the progress of
the epidemic from the terror which 1t
produced.
The Black Pest, after having deyasta-
ted, for three years, almost the whole OF
France, and particularly the city oi Paris,
i'll which place, we are informed by the
historians of that epoch, there persisted,
in SIX weeks, more than sixty thousand
victims, and the pestilence came to an end
finally for want of material upon winch
to feed After the lapse of those dread
full years, the whole kingdom of France
appeared TO be but general desolation,
and the King Phillip was compelled to ask
of his powerful enemy peace whereby
he might recover from the sad effects Of
the plague There was accorded him
only truce of seven years. Bat the
French monarch was not 10 live to its ter
mination. He died short time after the
granting of the truce, consumed with re-
grets for the past and with unrest as he