, which could no longer contain the multitudes that flocked to it,
was thrown into such consternation on the eruption of the plague that
the citizens destroyed themselves, as if in frenzy. When the plague
ceased, men thought they were still wandering among the dead, so
appalling was the livid aspect of the survivors, in consequence of the
anxiety they had undergone, and the unavoidable infection of the air.
Many other cities probably presented a similar appearance; and small
country towns and villages, estimated at two hundred thousand
population, were bereft of all their inhabitants.

In many places in France not more than two out of twenty of the
inhabitants were left alive. Two queens, one bishop, and great numbers
of other distinguished persons fell a sacrifice to it, and more than
five hundred a day died in the Hotel-Dieu, under the faithful care of
the religious women, whose disinterested courage, in this age of horror,
displayed the most beautiful traits of human virtue.

The church-yards were soon unable to contain the dead, and many houses,
left without inhabitants, fell to ruins. In Avignon, the Pope found it
necessary to consecrate the Rhone, that bodies might be thrown into the
river without delay, as the church-yards would no longer hold them.

In Vienna, where for some time twelve hundred inhabitants died daily,
the interment of corpses in the church-yards and within the churches was
forthwith prohibited, and the dead were then arranged in layers, by
thousands, in six large pits outside the city. In many places it was
rumored that plague patients were buried alive, and thus the horror of
the distressed people was everywhere increased. In Erfurt, after the
church-yards were filled, twelve thousand corpses were thrown into
eleven great pits; and the like might be stated with respect to all the
larger cities. Funeral ceremonies, the last consolation of the
survivors, were everywhere impracticable.

In all Germany there seem to have died only one million two hundred and
forty-four thousand four hundred and thirty-four inhabitants; this
country, however, was more spared than others. Italy was most severely
visited. It is said to have lost half its inhabitants; in Sardinia and
Corsica, according to the account of John Villani, who was himself
carried off by the black plague, scarcely a third part of the population
remained alive; and the Venetians engaged ships at a high rate to
retreat to the islands; so tha