Sayfa 932 / 1118

Meanwhile, as it became from day to day more difficult to raise

funds to meet the painful exigencies of circumstances, the

council of ten resolved to have recourse to government. They

represented, by two deputies, the state of misery and distress of

the city, the enormity of the expense, the revenues anticipated,

and the taxes withheld in consequence of the general poverty

which had been produced by so many causes, and especially by the

pillaging of the soldiery. That according to various laws, and a

special decree of Charles V., the expense of the plague ought by

right to devolve upon government. Finally, they proceeded to make

four demands: that the taxes should be suspended; that the

chamber should advance funds; that the governor should make known

to the king the calamitous state of the city and province; and

that the duchy, already exhausted, should be excused from

providing quarters for the soldiery.