There raged at this time in Edinburgh a disease called the _New
Acquaintance_. The queen and most of her courtiers had it; it spared
neither lord nor lady, French nor English. ‘It is a pain in their heads
that have it, and a soreness in their stomachs, with a great cough; it
remaineth with some longer, with others shorter time, as it findeth apt
bodies for the nature of the disease.’[22] Most probably, this disorder
was the same as that now recognised as the influenza.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1563.