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The pestilence, as the Tribunal of Health had feared, did enter

the Milanese with the German troops. It is also known that it was

not limited to that territory, but that it spread over and

desolated a great part of Italy. Our story requires us, at

present, to relate the principal circumstances of this great

calamity, as far as it affected the Milanese, and principally the

city of Milan itself, for the chroniclers of the period confine

their relations chiefly to this place. At the same time we cannot

avoid giving a general though brief sketch of an event in the

history of our country more talked of than understood.