January 16, 1583.
LETTER XIII.
The weather here is dreadful; for many months southerly winds have prevailed, accompanied by incessant rain and storm; so unseasonable and unhealthy a winter renders it probable that we shall have a sickly summer.
The rivers, overflowing their banks, have spread far and wide over the fields. By reason of the constant floods the arable lands are so wet and spongy that the seed is rotting in the ground, and farmers cherish but little hope of a good harvest. This state of things not only excites apprehensions of a great future rise in the corn markets, but its effects are already felt, the price of wheat having risen fifty per cent. In addition to these misfortunes, ships are constantly being wrecked, almost in sight, on the voyage to England or Zealand; in fact, the whole coast line of Aquitaine is said to be piled up with planks, masts, spars, rudders, and other fragments of wreck, which the tempest has washed ashore; so that, if nothing else should betide, the astrologers had good reason for prophesying a powerful combination of the starry influences and a year of terror to mankind.
January 19, 1583.
LETTER XIV.
News has arrived from Brabant by way of England, which has thrown the Queen (Catherine de Medici) and the whole nation into the greatest alarm. The account is vague, but the purport of the tidings is to the effect that a quarrel arose at Antwerp,[144] between the French and the citizens, and that the French force was annihilated.
The anxiety was greatly increased by the silence of Alençon; and, when no despatches arrived from him, serious doubts were entertained as to his safety. In this uncertainty several days passed by; at length messengers came pouring in, who told us the particulars of the affair, but still their accounts were defective in several important points, and differed in details.