by fire, and their children were baptized over the corpses of their parents, according to the religion of their murderers.  These atrocities were in all probability perpetrated by many, in order to possess themselves of the wealth acquired by the Jews in traffic, to take revenge for their usurious extortions, or, finally, to pay their debts in the most expeditious and easy manner.  When it was found that the plague was nowise diminished by massacring the Jews, but, on the contrary, seemed to acquire additional virulence, it was inferred that God, in his righteous wrath, intended nothing less than to extirpate the whole sinful race of man.  Many now endeavoured by self-chastisement to avert the divine vengeance from themselves.  Fraternities of hundreds and thousands collected under the name of Flagellants, strolled through the land in strange garbs, scourged themselves in the public streets, in penance for the sins of the world, and read a letter which was said to have fallen from heaven, admonishing all to repentance and amendment.  They were joined of course, by a crowd of idle vagabonds, who, under the mask of extraordinary sanctity and humble penitence, indulged in every species of disorder and debauchery.  At last the affair assumed so grave an aspect, that the pope and many secular princes declared themselves against the Flagellants, and speedily put an end to their extravagancies.  Various ways were still, however, resorted to by various tempers to snatch the full enjoyment of that life which they were so soon to lose, at the expense of every possible violation of the laws of morality.  Only a few lived on in a quiet and orderly manner, in reliance on the saving help of God, without running into any excess of anxiety or indulgence.  After this desolating scourge had raged during four years, its violence seemed at length to be exhausted.—­Ibid.

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WATERING PLACES IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

Baden, the well-known and much-frequented watering-place, has been long celebrated.  The following account of it in the fifteenth century is interesting.  Those warriors who would wile away the interval between one campaign and another agreeably, betook themselves to Baden in Aargau.  Here in a narrow valley, where the Limmat flows through its rocky bed, are hot springs of highly medicinal properties.  Hither, to the numerous houses of public entertainment, resorted prelates, abbots, monks, nuns, soldiers, statesmen, and all sorts of artificers.  As in our fashionable watering-places, most of the visitors merely sought to dissipate ennui, enjoy life, and pursue pleasure.  The baths were most crowded at an early hour in the morning, and those who did not bathe resorted thither to see acquaintances, with whom they could hold conversation from the galleries round the bath-rooms, while the bathers played at various games, or ate from floating tables.  Lovely females did not disdain to sue