ugate the human will, which,
in the contentions of nations, alone predominates.

CHAPTER II--THE DISEASE

The most memorable example of what has been advanced is afforded by a
great pestilence of the fourteenth century, which desolated Asia, Europe,
and Africa, and of which the people yet preserve the remembrance in
gloomy traditions. It was an oriental plague, marked by inflammatory
boils and tumours of the glands, such as break out in no other febrile
disease. On account of these inflammatory boils, and from the black
spots, indicatory of a putrid decomposition, which appeared upon the
skin, it was called in Germany and in the northern kingdoms of Europe the
Black Death, and in Italy, _la mortalega grande_, the Great Mortality.

Few testimonies are presented to us respecting its symptoms and its
course, yet these are sufficient to throw light upon the form of the
malady, and they are worthy of credence, from their coincidence with the
signs of the same disease in modern times.

The imperial writer, Kantakusenos, whose own son, Andronikus, died of
this plague in Constantinople, notices great imposthumes of the thighs
and arms of those affected, which, when opened, afforded relief by the
discharge of an offensive matter. Buboes, which are the infallible signs
of the oriental plague, are thus plainly indicated, for he makes separate
mention of smaller boils on the arms and in the face, as also in other
parts of the body, and clearly distinguishes these from the blisters,
which are no less produced by plague in all its forms. In many cases,
black spots broke out all over the body, either single, or united and
confluent.

These symptoms were not all found in every case. In many, one alone was
sufficient to cause death, while some patients recovered, contrary to
expectation, though afflicted with all. Symptoms of cephalic affection
were frequent; many patients became stupefied and fell into a deep sleep,
losing also their speech from palsy of the tongue; others remained
sleepless and without rest. The fauces and tongue were black, and as if
suffused with blood; no beverage could assuage their burning thirst, so
that their sufferings continued without alleviation until terminated by
death, which many in their despair accelerated with their own hands.
Contagion was evident, for attendants caught the disease of their
relations and friends, and many houses in the capital were bereft even of
their last inhabita