The Course the Sheriffs think best to take, is, without passing any Resolution, to desire the Citizens assembled with them, to accompany them, in their Hoods, and in a Body, to the House of M. de Rancé to intreat him with all Earnestness, to grant them the Assistance they want for the Preservation of the City.
M. de Rancé calls together M. de Vaucresson the Intendant, and the General Officers of the Gallies; they appear to be touched as much with the Zeal of these Magistrates, and with the burthensome and hazardous Conditions upon which they ask this Assistance, as with the great Extremity the City is in; accordingly they grant them all they demand on those Conditions; and being desirous to have the Agreement put into Writing, I drew up before them the following Act to be entred in the Register of the Town-House, and a Copy of it to be given to them.
This Day, the Sheriffs, Protectors, and Defenders of the Privileges, Liberties, and Immunities, of this City of Marseilles, the King's Counsellors, Lieutenants-General de Police, being assembled in the Town-House, with some of the municipal Officers, the Counsellor Orator of the City and the King's Procurator de la Police, and other eminent Citizens; and taking into Consideration, that though the 260 Slaves, which the Officers of the Gallies have been pleased to grant them at different Times, to bury the Dead since the City was afflicted with the Plague; have been extremely helpful to them hitherto, yet that Assistance is insufficient, above 2000 dead Bodies having actually lain in the Streets several Days; and causing a general Infection; it was therefore resolved, for preserving the City, to desire greater Assistance: And immediately the Sheriffs going out in their Hoods, accompanied by all the said municipal Officers and eminent Citizens, went in a Body to the House of the Chevalier de Rancé, Lieutenant-General, commanding his Majesty's Gallies, and represented to him, that the City has infinite Obligations to him for the signal Services which he has been pleased to do them in this Calamity; but that it is not possible to preserve the City, unless he does them the favour to grant them a Hundred Slaves more, and 4 Officers of the Whistle (or Boatswains) (almost all those who have formerly been granted, being dead or sick;) in which Case they will make the best Use of them; that to engage them to work with the greater Diligence in carrying off the dead Bodies, they will expose themselves as they have already done; will march on Horseback in their Hoods, before the Carts, and go with them all over the City: That moreover, it being of Importance, that their Authority should be supported by Force, at a time when there remains in the City only a numerous Populace, who must be kept under, for preventing all Tumult, and for maintaining good Order every where; they further intreat him most earnestly to grant them at least Forty stout Soldiers of the Gallies, to obey their Orders, to attend them, and at the same time hinder the Slaves from getting away; that they shall be commanded by themselves only; that they will divide them into 4 Parties, of which each Sheriff will head One; and it being necessary that one of the Sheriffs, at least, should be continually at the Town-House, for the Dispatch of such Affairs as may occur, one of the said Parties shall be commanded by the Chevalier Rose; and in Case they should be hindred by any Accident, they will propose in their Room, Commissaries of the best Distinction they can find, to head and command them. Whereupon the Chevalier de Rancé, being assembled with the Intendant and General Officers of the Gallies, all sensible of the miserable Condition of this great and important City, and willing to grant all that is necessary for saving it, have been pleased to grant to the Sheriffs, and to the Community, a Hundred Slaves more, and 40 Soldiers, among them 4 Corporals, with 4 Officers of the Whistle; and it being necessary to take those who are voluntarily disposed, and to engage them by Rewards, to this dangerous Service; It is resolved and agreed, that besides Subsistance which the Community shall furnish to them all, ten Livres a Day shall be given to each Officer of the Whistle, and to each Soldier fifty Sols: And after it shall please God to deliver the City from this Visitation, a Gratification of a hundred Livres, to be paid at once, shall be made to each of them who shall then be living. The Corporals shall have each a hundred Sols a Day, and also an annual Pension for Life of a hundred Livres to each of them who shall survive; it being judged they cannot be sufficiently rewarded for so important and perillous a Service, This is agreed by the Assembly, in consideration of the present Exigence, and the Necessity of the Time. Concluded at Marseilles, the 6th of September, 1720. Signed, Estelle, Audimar, Moustier, Dieudé, Sheriffs; Pichatty de Croissainté, Orator, and the King's Procurator; Capus, Keeper of the Records.
The 7th, the Magistrates taking into Consideration, that the Plague being the Instrument of God's Wrath, all the Help of Men, and all the Efforts they resolve to make, will be vain and useless, unless they have Recourse to his Mercy, and seek to appease him; they determine to make a Vow in the Name of the City, to incline him to vouchsafe to deliver it from this cruel Pestilence (as their Predecessors did during the last Plague,) that the Community shall give every Year, for ever, the Sum of 2000 Livres to a House of Charity, to be established by the Title and under the Protection of Our Lady of Good Help, for the Reception of poor Girls, Orphans of this City and its Territory.
The 8th, they make this Vow solemnly in the Presence of the Bishop, in the Chapel of the Town-House, where he celebrates Mass.
The same Day having received the Slaves, and the Officers of the Whistle, together with the Soldiers (whose Corps de Garde is settled in the great Hall of the Loge,) and M. Moustier having got in Readiness the Carts, and divided the Slaves into several Brigades, the Sheriffs in their Hoods put themselves each at the Head of one of those Brigades, with a Division or Guard of Soldiers, and go to the Places that are thickest spread with dead Bodies, and where they are most putrefied, with an Intrepidity that astonishes the very Soldiers, and makes the Slaves work with all their Strength, without fearing the Dangers which they see them so much contemn: They continue this Work daily, from Morning till Night, and the Chevalier Rose on Horseback, constantly supplies the Room of that Sheriff who is obliged in his Turn to sit in the Town-House for the ordinary Dispatch of Business: 'Tis a Miracle that they have not all perished, by exposing themselves to Dangers so great, that the forty Soldiers of the Gallies, who accompanied them, have all perished, except four, by their Sides.
The 9th, they send to the Council of Marine a Copy of the Act, specifying the Conditions on which the Officers of the Gallies granted those Soldiers, and the Slaves; another to the Marshal de Villars, and a third to the Grand Prior.
The 10th, the first President, who is always vigilant to supply their Wants, and who knows that besides Carts, they more need Carters to drive them, sends a Number of both from Aix, which are very helpful: The Officers of the Gallies furnish them with twenty five Slaves more, to replace those of the hundred already granted who are become unable to work; and add to them six, who are Butchers by Profession, to serve in the Slaughter-houses of the Town, where all the Butchers being dead, or having deserted, no body is left to kill Oxen and Sheep.