HISTORICAL FICTION — SPECULATIVE FICTION

The Black Plague Wipes Out Half of Europe

Chapter Sixteen — Guillaume and his new family survive.

Eighteen years later in 1347, Guillaume sat with his new wife, Germaine at a table with other community leaders who had come to hear from a visitor who had just arrived at their village in the forest west of Hambacher Schloss, deep within the Roman Empire. Guillaume had married Germaine, a widow whose husband had died in the rebellion, soon after Guillaume had been declared an enemy of the Church.

The visitor was a red-haired man who called himself Angus. All eyes and ears focused on the visitor’s message.

“I have news that won’t be welcome news,” Angus confided to the assembled elders of the community. “There is a pestilence that is headed this way, a disease much worse than any we have yet faced. Already it is in Constantinople and is making its way into our lands at an alarming rate.”

Hearing these words, many voices registered their concern, with panic hovering near the surface. Some began to argue as their words went unheard by the others who had their own concerns to express. There can be no discussion when no one is listening. Guillaume raised his hand before raising his voice to interrupt the cacophony of shrill voices.

“Listen! We have more yet to hear from Angus. We will take time when he has finished with his message, to deal with his news. Angus has many such villages such as ours to visit in order to spread the news.”

The voices retreated into silence. Guillaume was right, they needed to hear all of the news.

“This pestilence will come to our villages carried by rats and other vermin. It will take some time to get this far, probably in about two years, if not sooner. There is very little you can do to protect yourself here. Our council has determined that our best hope for survival from this plague will be for us to relocate even more inland, away from trade routes. In Bohemia, there is a large forested and unpopulated area along the Tepla River. This will be our people’s refuge from the plague.”

Worn out from both the ride and the emotional telling of his news, Angus showed noticeable signs of fatigue. Germaine called a halt to the meeting and then invited Angus to share a meal with her family before he took a much needed rest before continuing on his travels early the next morning. Her eldest son, Jacques who was now sixteen, would ride with Angus to the next village.

Guillaume once again had found himself leading another journey to yet another forest. He felt more like a gypsy than anything else. Yet, in spite of the frequent relocations, his community and family flourished. They weren’t wealthy, but they were safe and healthy. What more could a man ask for?

As promised, they had found a place in the forests by the Tepla River, more than a hundred kilometres west of Prague, the capital of the Bohemian Kingdom. It was far enough away to be off the trade routes so the advancing pestilence could be kept at a safe distance. Their new homeland forced them to become even more self-sufficient. To travel to a town or village would only risk bringing the dreaded plague into their community in the forest.

As the years passed, the advancing tide of the Black Death began to recede. Almost half of the population of the continent perished because of the plague. The plague didn’t care if one was a devout Christian, or a pagan. Neither did it care about whether one was nobility or serf. There was no protection, even in the grandest of Cathedrals.

The only thing that mattered as the pestilence retreated was the fact that one was alive. The Church got wealthier though their moral authority was diminished with the fallout from the Black Plague.

The Belgae in Guillaume’s camp fared better, but that wasn’t the truth for a number of other forest communities. More than a quarter of the Belgae succumbed to the Black Death. What had united these people was a belief in the old gods and goddesses as their protectors.

Yet, those gods and goddesses failed to protect them just as the Christian God failed his people. It wasn’t long before individual families began to leave the forest villages to return to their abandoned homes along the Somme River.

Guillaume’s family was not among those that made the journey back to the Somme. The reasons for fleeing had not disappeared. Guillaume was certain that he would end up in prison, if not worse should he risk returning. Along with a handful of other families, he continued to make the forest his home.

Previously

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Carrie, Author, D. Denise Dianaty, Brian Lageose, Mariana Busarova, Rena Aliston, Julia A. Keirns, Michael Cappelli, Daniel Shaw, and Luis Ruiz, Robert, Arzuman Mamishov, Adda Maria, Love, and Mariana Busarova