"Certe dicere timeo Quæ vidi et quæ video De ista pestilentia." [79] Gams, _Series Episcoporum_, gives 13th June, 1349, as the day of his death. [80] "Quia de sacerdotibus Infirmos visitantibus Quamplurimi defecerunt." [81] _Chronicon majus Ægidii Li Muisis, abbatis Sti. Martini Tornacensis_, in De Smet, _Receuil des Chroniques de Flandre_, ii, pp. 279-281 and 361-382. [82] S. Luce, _Bertrand du Guesclin_, i, ch. 3. [83] Piot, _Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Saint-Trond_, i, 507. [84] Lechner, _Das grosse Sterben in Deutschland_, p. 93. [p058] CHAPTER IV. THE PLAGUE IN OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES. In following the great pestilence through Europe, according to the historical sequence of events, its course in England should be now described. Inasmuch, however, as the story of the ravages caused by the disease in England will be told in greater detail, it may conveniently be left till the last. Here a brief account may be interposed of the mortality in other European countries, although it will take the reader to the year 1351. From Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica the plague was carried to the Balearic Islands. The three streams of infection met with destructive force at Majorca. The historian Zurita declares that in less than a month 15,000 persons had perished on the island. Another writer estimates the total loss of life during the epidemic at double that number, and some ancient records have been quoted as stating that in the island eight out of every ten people must have died, a proportion, of course, exaggerated, but sufficient to show local tradition as to the extent of the misfortune. In the monasteries and convents, according to this authority, not one religious was left; and the Dominicans are said to have been obliged to recruit their numbers by enrolling quite young children.[85] The scourge fell upon Spain in the early part of the year 1348. It is supposed to have first appeared at Almeira, and in Barcelona whole quarters of the city were depopulated and rendered desolate by it. In May, 1348, it was already raging in Valencia, and by midsummer 300 persons a day are reported to have been buried in the city. At [p059] Saragossa, where Pedro IV. then was, the malady was at its height in September. The people here, as elsewhere, became hardened, and charity died out in the presence of the terrors of death. They fled from the sick, leaving them to die alone, and abandoned the corpses of the dead in the streets. Most of the cities and villages of Spain suffered more or less severely, and the sickness appears to have lingered longer here than in most other countries. The new Queen of Aragon had been one of the earliest victims; Alphonsus XI. was one of the last. In March, 1350, he was laying siege to Gibraltar, when the plague broke out suddenly with great violence amongst his troops. He refused to retire, as his officers desired him to do, and fell a victim to the epidemic on Good Friday, March 26th, 1350.[86]