newly begun to recover his Health) has also received a Commission to
command in the City and Territory; they go in the same manner to his
House, to make him the like Compliments: And both their Commissions
being sent to be entred in the Register of the Town-House, it appears
that M. _de Langeron_, in the Quality of Major-General of the King's
Forces, is to take place, and command in Chief.
The same Day, M. _de Langeron_ mounts on Horseback, and comes to the
Town-House, to inform himself of the State of Affairs, that he might
thereupon make the proper Dispositions, and take the necessary Measures
for applying speedy Remedies to pressing Evils: He is accompanied by
the Chevalier _de Soissans_, an Officer of the Gallies, whom he has
taken to his Assistance; and who is so ardent for relieving the Town,
that he is every Day on Horseback from Morning till Night, running
wherever any thing is to be done, and to provide against, or redress,
those Inconveniences which appear most insuperable; contemning Danger,
and compelling others, by his Example, not to relax or stop; putting
in Execution Things seeming the most impossible, with that Activity,
Prudence, and indefatigable Zeal, that every thing is done by his Care,
and by his Assistance.
The 13th, the Marquess _de Pilles_ comes to the Town-House; his
Presence, after the Grief and Alarm his Sickness had caused, gives
every one unspeakable Pleasure. M. _de Langeron_ repairs thither
likewise; he never fails to come thither every Day on Horseback, in the
Morning and Afternoon, be what Weather it will, and sits generally till
eight a Clock at Night; 'tis most frequently after he has taken his
Rounds to the Hospitals, the Pits, the Church-yards, and other Places
very dangerous to approach, which he will view with his own Eyes, and
where he exposes himself without Regard to his Health or Life.
The 14th, the Sheriffs continue to appear constantly, each at the Head
of one of the Brigades of Slaves, with the Carts, to set them to work
in different Quarters, to take up and carry to the Pits that prodigious
Number of dead Bodies, with which the City is filled; and though they
take away so many, they find more still, by the Continuance of the
Mortality.
But there is one Part, where they have not been able to set foot yet;
it is at an Esplanade called _la Tourette_, which lies towards the
Sea, between the Houses and the Rampart, from Fort St. _John_ to the
Church of _Major_: There lie extended about a thousand dead Bodies
close to each other, the freshest of which have lain there above three
Weeks; so that had they not been infected, the lying so long in a Place
exposed to the hot Sun all the Day, might have sufficed to render them
contagious: All one's Senses are affected at approaching a Place,
whence one smells afar off the contagious Vapours which Exhale from it:
Nature shrinks, and the firmest Eyes cannot bear so hideous a Sight;
those Bodies have no longer any human Form, they are Monsters that give
Horror, and one would think all their Limbs stir, the Worms are in such
Motion about them.
Nothing however is of more urgent Necessity than to remove these
Bodies from that Place; every Moment they are let lye there, furnishes
Exhalations which must poison the Air; but how shall they be taken up
and carried to the Pits without the Town, which are at a very great
Distance? Bodies so putrefied will not hold in the Carts; the Entrails,
the Limbs which are loosened at the Joints by the Worms, would run out,
or drop off, which would scatter the Plague and Venom quite through the
City.
The Chevalier _Rose_, who is good at Expedients, and as industrious
as intrepid, goes to the Place, and viewing the Rampart, perceives
that two antient Bastions, which about two thousand Years ago stood
the Attacks of _Julius Cæsar_'s Army, and are near the _Esplanade_
where lye the dead Bodies, tho' they seem to be filled with Earth, are
vaulted within, which he discovers at the Foot of one of them through
a Hole, which Time has made in a Stone; he presently imagines that no
more needs be done, than to take away some Foot of Earth which cover
the Vault of each Bastion, to break into that Vault, and finding them
quite hollow within down to the Foundation which is level with the
Surface of the Sea, nothing is more easy than to cast all those Bodies
into them, and then to cover them with as much Earth and Lime as is
necessary, to hinder the exhaling of any Infection from them.
This being so judiciously projected, he returns to the Town-house, and
tells M. _de Langeron_ and the Sheriffs, that he will take upon him
to remove all the dead Bodies from _la Tourette_, explains to them
his Project, they find it admirable; but to be able to execute it, a
greater Number of Slaves must be employed, that it may be done suddenly
and at once; it being evident, that no Soul that breathes can hold
out above a few Minutes in so noisome a Place, when those Bodies are
moved, to be drawn off the Ground and thrown into the Bastions. M. _de
Langeron_, who has newly received Orders from Court, to take as many
Slaves out of the Gallies as he shall judge necessary for the Service
of the City, promises him a hundred for this Enterprize.
The same Day the Mortality continues without Decrease, and all the
several Pits which had been opened being filled, M. _de Langeron_
accompanied by M. _Moustier_, and the Chevalier _de Soissans_, take a
Turn without the City, to see what Place will be most convenient for
opening new ones speedily; and some are marked out on the Side of the
Gate of _Aix_, of sixty Foot long and thirty broad: At the same time
the Question being where to get at least a hundred _Peasants_ to dig
them; M. _de Langeron_ sends all his Guards into the Territory, with
Orders to the Captains of the principal Quarters to make them come,
either willingly, or by Force.
The 15th, he issues an Ordinance, commanding all the Intendants of
Health, Counsellors of the City, Captains of Quarters, and Commissaries
of Parishes, who have deserted, to return within twenty four Hours to
their Functions, on Pain of Disobedience.
He sets forth another, jointly with the Marquess _de Pilles_ and the
Sheriffs, prescribing all that ought to be done, observed, and executed
in the Territory, where the Plague makes likewise very great Ravages,
and has got into all the Quarters.
The 16th, to remove that horrible Infection which is in the Port,
by above ten thousand dead Dogs floating in it, he sends for the
Regulators of the Fishermen to the Town-house, and Orders them to work
with Boats to inclose them in Nets, and draw them so far without the
Chain, that the Current of the Water may not bring them in again.
This Day the Chevalier _Rose_, who the Day before had caused the Vaults
of the two Bastions of the Rampart _de la Tourette_ to be broken into,
and found them hollow to the Foundation as he had foreseen, having
received the hundred Slaves appointed to remove the dead Bodies from
that Part, causes each of them to tye a Handkerchief dipped in Vinegar
about his Head to stop his Nose, and having disposed them in such a
manner, as to be able to put all Hands to the Work at once, he makes
them in half an Hour take away all those Bodies, Limbs of which dropped
off in carrying, and throw them into the Caverns of those Bastions,
which he immediately causes to be filled with Lime and Earth, up to the
Level of the Esplanade.
The 17th, the Sheriffs continuing with yet greater Ardour and Zeal,
to go each at the Head of a Number of Carts, to see the dead Bodies
taken up and carried off, from the several Streets of the Town, which
are more and more filled with them; M. _Estelle_ has Notice that the
Pits which had been filled on the Side of _la Major_, had cleft in the
Night; he hastens thither to see them repaired, and takes with him the
Peasants who were working at the new Pits without the Gate of _Aix_:
But there's no governing the Peasants at approaching infected Places,
the Soldiers of the Gallies who accompany them drive them on, but they
give back; he takes a Pick-ax himself and falls to work to encourage
them; they are not to be stimulated by his Example, the Soldiers are,
they instantly lay down their Arms, wrest the Pick-ax out of his Hands,
take each of them one from those dastardly Peasants, and repair the
Pits, notwithstanding the Infection, with inexpressible Ardour: It is
Pity all those Soldiers perished, they served the City with a Zeal
which will make them always lamented.
This Day M. _Audimar_ causes a Heap of Bodies, which were piled up
in the Street of _Ferrat_, and were no less putrid than those of _la
Tourette_, to be carried off.
M. _de Langeron_ studying to relieve the Necessities of the People,
who are in want of all Things, and who suffer and even perish by the
Desertion of almost all the Surgeons, Apothecaries, Retailers of common
Necessaries, as Cooks and others, whose Shops and Stalls are generally
shut up every where; he publishes an Ordinance to compel them to return
within twenty four Hours precisely, on Pain of Death.
The same Day the Physicians of _Montpellier_ who had come in the Month
of _August_, to examine by Order of his Royal Highness, the Nature and
Symptoms of the Distemper, come again, accompanied by M. _Soulliers_
Master Surgeon to the King, who was also with them the first time;
after their Departure from hence, they had resided at a Country-house
near _Aix_ which had been appointed for them to perform Quarantain in,
which done they were to have been admitted into _Montpellier_; but his
Royal Highness being desirous to succour _Marseilles_, and judging that
such a Distemper required the most eminent and skilful Physicians, was
pleased to send them new Orders to return hither, and join with them M.
_Deidier_ another famous Physician and Professor of _Montpellier_, who
arrived with them.
The Plague had till then been treated as the Plague, the Sick
presently judged of the Danger of their Sickness by the Behaviour of
the Physicians who visited them: M. _de Chicoyneau_, Chancellor of
the University of _Montpellier_, M. _Verny_, and M. _Deidier_, give
them Reason to believe, on the contrary, that 'tis of all Distempers
the least dangerous and the most common; they approach them without
the least Concern or Mark of Emotion, without Repugnance, without
Precaution; they even sit down upon their Beds, touch their Buboes
and Sores, and stay by them calmly as long as is necessary to inform
themselves of the State of their Case, the Symptoms of their Distemper,
and to see the Surgeons perform the Operations they order: They go
every where, and pass through all the Quarters, they examine the Sick,
in the Streets, in the publick Places, in the Houses, and in the
Hospitals; one would think them invulnerable, or tutelar Angels sent
by God to save every poor Creature's Life; they refuse the Money the
Rich offer them; nor receive any thing from any body, but a thousand
Blessings from all; their Manner of proceeding, with the Reputation of
their Names, recover the Sick by the Hope and Confidence they raise in
them.
The 18th, another Pit is opened, below the Ramparts between the Gate
of _Aix_ and the Tower of St. _Paule_, sixty Foot long and thirty
broad: M. _de Langeron_ wrote the Day before to the Captains of the
Territory, to send in Peasants: The Chevalier _de Soissans_ goes at
Day break to the Entrance of the Suburbs, to conduct them to this
Work, which they were extremely averse to, because of the Nearness of
other Pits already filled thereabouts. New ones are also opened on
the Side of that Ground, by which the Church-yard of the Parish of St.
_Ferriol_ was formerly enlarged; this Quarter is the finest and best
Inhabited of the City, where M. _Serre_, no less a good Citizen than a
famous and excellent Painter, one of the Commissaries appointed there,
zealous even to the Sacrificing of his own Life for the Relief of his
Country, has taken upon himself alone the laborious and perillous Care
to see carried off and buried, the dead Bodies from thence, with some
Carts which the Sheriffs have given him, and a Brigade of Slaves put
under his Direction by the Officers of the Gallies, whom he carefully
subsists and lodges at his own Expence. A Citizen that so loves his
Country, deserves to be beloved by it.
The 19th the Desertion from the City continuing, so that none can be
found to carry into the Store-houses of the Community the Corn brought
up by Boats from the Barrier of _Lestaque_, M. _de Langeron_ appoints
for that Service twenty six Gally-Slaves, with four of their Companions
to dress Victuals for them; no Persons being found fit to be put to do
so much as that.
The time of Vintage approaching, it is considered that the Vapours of
the new Wine, in a Town where so prodigious a Quantity is made, might
contribute very much towards dis-infecting the Houses; and it is called
to mind that it was by this Means the last Plague which afflicted
_Marseilles_ was stopt: Whereupon an Ordinance is issued, in the Names
of M. _de Langeron_, the Marquess _de Pilles_, and the Sheriffs,
importing that the Vintage shall be got in as usual.
This Day arrive three other Physicians of the Faculty of _Montpellier_,
who came Post from _Paris_ by Order of his Royal Highness, _viz._
M. _Mailhes_ Professor of the University of _Cahors_, M. _Boyer
de Paradis_ of _Marseilles_, and M. _de Læbadie_, accompanied by
two Master-Surgeons of _Paris_: They are provided with excellent
Instructions, which they received from M. _Chirac_ first Physician to
his Royal Highness, and Sur-Intendant of the Royal Physick-Garden,
who has not neglected any thing that might be for the Relief of this
unfortunate City: Physicians so well chosen, and so well instructed,
cannot fail of doing good Service; the Event will soon shew it.
The 20th, there are no Medicines nor Drugs to be found in the City, by
Reason of the Flight and Desertion of all the Apothecaries, Druggists,
and Grocers; the Sick dye without being able to use the Liberty of
making their Wills, the Royal Notaries having all fled; Women with
Child are delivered without any Assistance, the Midwives being all fled
likewise: An Ordinance at my Instance is issued by M. _de Langeron_,
the Marquess _de Pilles_, and the Sheriffs, to oblige them all to
return within twenty four Hours on Pain of Death: The Royal Notaries
only obey readily. The ordinary Term of letting or quitting Houses
being _Michaelmas-Day_, and almost all the Houses being infected, it
would be dangerous to suffer such removing with Houshold-Goods mostly
infected; another Ordinance forbids it, till it be otherwise ordered.
The 21st, the Sheriffs have an Increase of Care and Trouble; the
Persons who for a long time had the Direction and Management of the
Office of Plenty of Corn, and of the Shambles, dye of the Plague;
this obliges the Sheriffs to take that Business upon themselves,
while they have so much already upon their Hands: M. _de Langeron_,
to facilitate their going through with it all, persuades them to take
each a certain part of the Work: Accordingly, M. _Estelle_ is charged
with the Dispatch of all the current Affairs at the Town-House, with
the Correspondences, and with the Orders for the good Government of
the City; M. _Audimar_ with the Shambles; M. _Moustier_ with all that
relates to the carrying off and burying of the Dead, the Pits, and the
Church-yards, the cleaning of the Streets, the Carts, the Gally Slaves
and their Subsistance; and M. _Dieudé_ with what relates to Bread-Corn,
Meal, Wood for firing, and the Bakers.
The 22d, new Pits are to be made, M. _de Langeron_ sends his Guards
into the Territory, to bring in one hundred and fifty Men to dig them;
and the 23d one is opened of one hundred thirty two Foot long, forty
eight wide, and fourteen deep, in the Garden of the Observantines near
the Ramparts.
The 24th, at the Time when Misery and Calamity are at the Heighth;
when all is groaning, lamenting, dying, as well in the Country, as in
the Town; when those whom the Fury of the Distemper has spared, are
overtaken by Famine, and fall into Despair, more cruel and terrible
than the Plague it self; when the Fountains of Charity, which had run
till now, are dried up; when, as the Scripture expresses it, _the
Heavens seem to be of Brass, and the Earth of Iron_; and when no Hope
at all remain'd, but of Dying; 'tis then a charitable Hand extends it
self from afar to this unhappy City.
The 25th, the Heaps of infected Cloaths and Houshold-Goods, with which
all the Streets are incumbered, being a greater hindrance to the
passing through them, than the dead Bodies and Sick that lye in them;
Mons. _de Langeron_ sets twenty five Gally-Slaves to work, to carry all
off in Carts, and twenty others to cleave Wood for Firing, for the Use
of the Bakers; no other Hands being to be had.
The Refractoriness of the Apothecaries, Druggists, and Grocers, in
absenting themselves from the City, and the Necessity of compelling
them to return, that the Sick may be supplied with Medicines and Drugs,
oblige him to send Guards into the Territory, to seize and bring away
the chief of them.
The 26th, the Hospital of Timber-work in the Alleys of the _Grand
Mall_, and which so many Poor infected, who lie in the Streets and
publick Places, have been wishing for several Days, is upon the Point
of being finished, after incredible Labour; when a North Wind, the most
violent that ever was, blows so hard, that it breaks and throws down
almost all the Timber-work, with the Sail-cloth that covered it: For
repairing speedily this Damage, M. _de Langeron_ goes thither, sends
for robust and serviceable Fellows from the Gallies, with Officers
to keep them diligently employed; the Sheriffs bestir themselves
to provide more Timber and Sail-cloth; all Hands are at Work; the
Chevalier _de Soissans_ keeps upon the Spot, to encourage the Men, and
give Orders, accompanied by M. _Marin_ and _Beaussier_, Commissaries
appointed to act as Directors General of this Hospital, who sacrificed
their Time and private Concerns to see it built, were always active
in any thing that was most toilsome; and the principal Assistants of
the Sheriffs, from the Time the Fear of the Contagion made every body
abandon them.
The 27th, it is considered, that as large as this Hospital is, it
cannot serve for such a Multitude of Sick, as are lying in all the
Streets, and encreased daily by the Continuance of the Distemper;
and therefore another must be timely thought of: After looking about
every where, it is resolved to make use of the Hospital General _de la
Charité_, which is in perfect Readiness, actually furnished with near
800 Beds, and all necessary Utensils.
The Difficulty is, whither to remove the Poor maintained in it: No
Place seems so proper as the _Hôtel-Dieu_, where there is Room enough;
but there have been infected Patients in it, and above fifty are
so now; they must be first removed, and the House disinfected (or
perfumed;) those Patients are carried to a Chapel of the _Penitents_,
which is hard by; and M. _Estelle_ performs the Disinfection with all
requisite Exactness.
From the 28th of _September_ to the 3d of _October_, nothing but Action
and Labour Night and Day. At the _Mall_ no Time is lost to repair
the Damage done by the Wind, and to provide for such an Hospital the
infinite Number of Things necessary in it; in fitting up Apartments and
Laboratories for the Physicians, Apothecaries, Surgeons, Officers, and
Servants of the Hospital, in the Convent of the Reformed _Augustines_,
which is contiguous to it, and in the neighbouring _Bastides_; and in
digging near it large and deep Pits: At _la Charité_, those already
opened in the Garden of the _Observantines_ are just behind it; but
for that Hospital, it was found to require more Trouble than the other
to provide it with all Necessaries. The Pains taken to disinfect the
_Hôtel-Dieu_, remove from thence the infected Patients, and bring into
it all the Poor from _la Charité_, are inconceivable: M. _de Langeron_
is obliged to be on Horseback from Morning to Night, moving from Place
to Place; the Sheriffs give themselves no Respite, but shorten the
common Time of Meals, that they may not lose a Moment. Every thing
is hard to be got, even Straw to stuff the Mattresses, which no body
will bring in from the Territory, without being compelled to it by
Force. Officers and Servants must be sought for all these Hospitals;
especially a great Number of Surgeons must be had, both Masters
and Men; they cannot be drawn hither from other Provinces, but by
exorbitant Rewards; Advertisements are affixed every where, promising
to all Surgeons who will come, _viz._ to Master-Surgeons of Principal
Towns 2000 Livres a Month; to the licensed Surgeons of those Towns, and
the Master-Surgeons of small Places 1000 Livres a Month; and to their
Apprentices, or Journeymen, 300 Livres a Month, with the Freedom of the
Company of Surgeons of _Marseilles_; besides Lodging and Diet all the
time they are employed.
The 3d of _October_, Part of the Troops which M. _de Langeron_ expected
for the Service of the City, and to execute his Orders, arrive; _viz._
Three Companies of the Regiment of _Flandres_, whom he causes to encamp
at the _Chartreuse_ without the Walls.
The 4th, the two new Hospitals at the _Mall_ and _la Charité_, are, at
length, in a Condition to receive the Sick; and immediately they creep
thither from all Quarters. A Number of Gally-Slaves is employed to
fetch those who cannot help themselves, and are lying in the publick
Places and Streets, and in the Houses.
The 5th, all the Physicians, as well Strangers, as of Faculty in
this City, are convened at the Town-House, in the Presence of M. _de
Langeron_, the Marquess de _Pilles_, and the Sheriffs; and M. _de
Chicoyneau_ and _Verny_, as Principals, and those others to whom the
general Inspection is committed, appoint the Stations where each
shall serve, and the Surgeons to be employed under them. If all the
Strangers have signalized themselves by their Skill and Zeal, those of
the City have equall'd them in both; they have served with so little
Care of their own Persons, that three of them have lost their Lives, M.
_Peissonel_, _Montagnier_, and _Audan_, and a fourth, Mr. _Bertrand_,
was very near Death's Door.
The 6th, three of the Captains of the City dying, the Sheriffs nominate
in their Room M. _Desperier_, _Bonnaneau_, and _Icard_, who from the
Beginning of the Contagion have voluntarily gone upon any Service,
however toilsome and hazardous, for the City.
The 7th, the Plague being more violent in the Territory than in the
City, and it being of Importance to hinder the Sick to come from thence
into it; M. _de Langeron_ posts at each Gate a _Corps de Garde_ of
Soldiers of the King's Troops, under the Command of the Captains and
Officers of the Town; and publishes an Ordinance, which prescribes the
Rules to be observed at any Person's coming into, or going out of the
Gates.
The 8th, whereas since the two new Hospitals have been opened, the Sick
are no longer lying about the Streets, and the dead Bodies are carried
off daily, by the great Number of Carts which are continually passing;
Dispositions are made for cleaning the Streets throughout the City, as
well for making Room to pass, as to take away the horrible Infection
caused by the prodigious Quantity of Filth and Nastiness, with which
they are all covered. For this Purpose large Boats, used for cleansing
the Port, by taking up the Soil, are placed all along the Key at each
Pallisade; and while the Sheriffs go each through a Quarter with a
Brigade of Gally Slaves, to cause all the Heaps of infected Cloaths and
Houshold-Goods, which have been thrown out of the Windows, to be burnt;
other Brigades of Slaves go with Carts, to take up the Dunghills and
Filth, which they shoot into those Boats, and these carry it out, and
throw it into the Sea, as far as they can from the Mouth of the Port:
This is so tedious a Work, that be it followed never so close, it will
take up a Month at least to finish it.