than it really was, it would have found the most striking confirmation in the sudden cessation of the pestilence throughout the whole country. For the destructive spirits of air, which would not have been discerned even by the proud naturalists of the nineteenth century, dispersed and vanished for half an age in the fury of the tempest which raged on the 1st of January, 1486. CHAPTER II. THE SECOND VISITATION OF THE DISEASE.—1506. “The times were rough and full of mutations and rare incidents.”—_Bacon_. SECT. 1.—MERCENARY TROOPS. At the commencement of the sixteenth century, society was very differently constituted from what it was at the period when Henry the VIIth unfurled his banner for victory. The darkness of the middle ages had receded, as at the approach of a sun still hidden behind a cloud. The mind unconsciously expanded in the unwonted light of day—the whole earth was on the eve of renovation—new energies were to be called into action—events more stupendous had never occurred, nor had more creative ideas ever aroused the spirit of man. The invention of Gutenberg burst through the bonds of mental darkness, and gave to freedom of thought imperishable wings; unsuspected powers successively developed themselves; and, while in Western Europe an ardent desire arose boldly to overstep the ancient limits of human activity, the hopes of the more enlightened fell far short of the actual result of such unexpected events. The discovery of the New World, and the circumnavigation of Africa, laid the foundation for great improvements; yet the events in Central Europe, though less striking to contemporaries, were in their consequences, infinitely more important and beneficial. The establishment of civil order among all the nations of the West took place at this period, which forms so important a boundary between the middle ages and modern times. Regal power was fixed on a firm basis, and when the castles had fallen before the artillery of the princes and imperial cities, so that the petty feudal barons were compelled to swear obedience to the laws, an end was put to the incessant predatory feuds which had so long desolated Europe, and the establishment of internal peace was followed by the security of life and property—the first essential of refinement in manners and of the free development of human society.