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Meanwhile the immense ditch which had been dug near the lazaretto

was filled with dead bodies; a number still remained without

sepulture, as hands were wanting for the work. Without

extraordinary aid this calamity must have remained unremedied.

The president of the senate addressed himself in tears to the two

intrepid friars who governed the lazaretto, and the Father

Michele pledged himself to relieve in four days the city of the

unburied dead, and to dig, in the course of a week, another ditch

sufficient not only for present wants, but even for those which

might be anticipated in future. Followed by another friar, and

public officers chosen by the president, he went into the country

to procure peasants, and partly by the authority of the tribunal,

partly by that of his habit, he gathered 200, whom he employed to

dig the earth. He then despatched monatti from the lazaretto to

collect the dead. At the appointed time his promise was

fulfilled.