iolence. France was assailed
by way of Provence, and Avignon suffered especially. Of the English
college at that place not an individual was left, and 120 persons died
in a single day in that small city. Paris lost upwards of 50,000 of its
inhabitants, while 90,000 were swept away in Lubeck, and 1,200,000 died
within a year of its first appearance in Germany.

In England the march of the pestilence westward was viewed with deep
apprehension, and the approaching danger was brought home to the people
by the death of the Princess Joan, the king's second daughter. She was
affianced to Peter, the heir to the throne of Spain; and the bride, who
had not yet accomplished her fourteenth year, was sent over to Bordeaux
with considerable train of attendants in order to be united there to
her promised husband. Scarcely had she reached Bordeaux when she was
attacked by the pestilence and died in a few hours. A few days later
the news spread through the country that the disease had appeared almost
simultaneously at several of the seaports in the south-west of England.
Thence with great rapidity it spread through the kingdom; proceeding
through Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire it broke out in London, and the
ravages were no less severe than they had been on the Continent, the
very lowest estimate being that two-thirds of the population were swept
away. Most of those attacked died within a few hours of the seizure. If
they survived for two days they generally rallied, but even then many
fell into a state of coma from which they never awoke.

No words can describe the terror and dismay caused by this the most
destructive plague of which there is any record in history. No remedies
were of the slightest avail against it; flight was impossible, for the
loneliest hamlets suffered as severely as crowded towns, and frequently
not a single survivor was left. Men met the pestilence in various moods:
the brave with fortitude, the pious with resignation, the cowardly and
turbulent with outbursts of despair and fury. Among the lower classes
the wildest rumours gained credence. Some assigned the pestilence to
witchcraft, others declared that the waters of the wells and streams had
been poisoned. Serious riots occurred in many places, and great numbers
of people fell victims to the fury of the mob under the suspicion of
being connected in some way with the ravages of the pestilence. The
Jews, ever the objects of popular hostility, engendered by ignor