[71] Limburg. Chronicle, pub. by _C. D. Vogel_. Marburg: 1828. 8vo. p. 14. [72] _Barnes._ Loc. cit. [73] Ibid. [74] _Spangenberg._ fol. 339. A. Grawsam Sterben vieler faulen Troppfen. Many lazy monks died a cruel death. [75] _Vitoduran._ Loc. cit. 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. Lübeck, 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.[76] 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,[77] were bereft of all their inhabitants. [76] _Becker_, Loc. cit. [77] _Hainr. Rebdorf._ P. 630. In many places in France not more than two out of twenty of the inhabitants were left alive,[78] and the capital felt the fury of the plague, alike in the palace and the cot. [78] _Guillelm de Nang._ Loc. cit. Two queens,[79] one bishop,[80] and great numbers of other distinguished persons, fell a sacrifice to it, and more than 500 a day died in the Hôtel-Dieu, under the faithful care of the sisters of charity, whose disinterested courage, in this age of horror, displayed the most beautiful traits of human virtue. For although they lost their lives, evidently from contagion, and their numbers were several times renewed, there was still no want of fresh candidates, who, strangers to the unchristian fear of death, piously devoted themselves to their holy calling. [79] _Johanna_, queen of Navarre, daughter of _Louis X._, and _Johanna_ of Burgundy, wife of king _Philip_ de Valois. [80] _Fulco de Chanar._ The church-yards were soon unable to contain the dead,[81] and many houses, left without inhabitants, fell to ruins. [81] _Mich. Felibien_, Histoire de la ville de Paris. Liv. XII. Vol. II. p. 601, Paris: 1725. fol. Comp. _Guillelm de Nangis_. Loc. cit, and _Daniel_ Histoire de France, Tom. II. p. 484. Amsterd. 1720. 4to.