if the people really had been so utterly
destroyed?

This account is nevertheless rendered credible by the ascertained fact,
that the palaces of princes are less accessible to contagious diseases
than the dwellings of the multitude; and that in places of importance,
the influx from those districts which have suffered least, soon repairs
even the heaviest losses. We must remember, also, that we do not gather
much from mere numbers without an intimate knowledge of the state of
society. We will therefore confine ourselves to exhibiting some of the
more credible accounts relative to European cities.

In Florence there died of the Black Plague--60,000
In Venice--100,000
In Marseilles, in one month--16,000
In Siena--70,000
In Paris--50,000
In St. Denys--14,000
In Avignon--60,000
In Strasburg--16,000
In Lubeck--9,000
In Basle--14,000
In Erfurt, at least--16,000
In Weimar--5,000
In Limburg--2,500
In London, at least--100,000
In Norwich--51,100

To which may be added--

Franciscan Friars in German--124,434
Minorites in Italy--30,000

This short catalogue might, by a laborious and uncertain calculation,
deduced from other sources, be easily further multiplied, but would still
fail to give a true picture of the depopulation which took place. Lubeck,
at that time the Venice of the North, 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.

Merchants whose earnings and possessions were unbounded, coldly and
willingly renounced their earthly goods. They carried their treasures to
monasteries and churches, and laid them at the foot of the altar; but
gold had no charms for the monks, for it brought them death. They shut
their gates; yet, still it was cast to them over the convent walls.
People would brook no impediment to the last pious work to which they
were driven by despair. 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 it is ascertained that a great number of small
country towns and villages, which have been estimated, and not too
highly, at 200,000, were bereft of all their inhabitants.

In many places in France, not more than two out of