nner of a bloody war; others
maintained that it predicted a great famine; but the greater number,
founding their judgment upon its pale colour, thought it portended a
pestilence. The fulfilment of their prediction brought them into great
repute while the plague was raging.

Other prophecies were current, which were asserted to have been delivered
hundreds of years previously. They had a most pernicious effect upon the
mind of the vulgar, as they induced a belief in fatalism. By taking away
the hope of recovery--that greatest balm in every malady--they increased
threefold the ravages of the disease. One singular prediction almost drove
the unhappy people mad. An ancient couplet, preserved for ages by
tradition, foretold, that in the year 1630 the devil would poison all
Milan. Early one morning in April, and before the pestilence had reached
its height, the passengers were surprised to see that all the doors in the
principal streets of the city were marked with a curious daub, or spot, as
if a sponge, filled with the purulent matter of the plague-sores, had been
pressed against them. The whole population were speedily in movement to
remark the strange appearance, and the greatest alarm spread rapidly.
Every means was taken to discover the perpetrators, but in vain. At last
the ancient prophecy was remembered, and prayers were offered up in all
the churches, that the machinations of the Evil One might be defeated.
Many persons were of opinion that the emissaries of foreign powers were
employed to spread infectious poison over the city; but by far the greater
number were convinced that the powers of hell had conspired against them,
and that the infection was spread by supernatural agencies. In the mean
time the plague increased fearfully. Distrust and alarm took possession of
every mind. Every thing was believed to have been poisoned by the Devil;
the waters of the wells, the standing corn in the fields, and the fruit
upon the trees. It was believed that all objects of touch were poisoned;
the walls of the houses, the pavements of the streets, and the very
handles of the doors. The populace were raised to a pitch of ungovernable
fury. A strict watch was kept for the Devil's emissaries, and any man who
wanted to be rid of an enemy, had only to say that he had seen him
besmearing a door with ointment; his fate was certain death at the hands
of the mob. An old man, upwards of eighty years of age, a daily frequenter
of the chur