these camps Pietro and Eudocia now went forth, cheering, consoling, laboring. Coöperation among strangers hastily thrown together, united action among mothers for the attendance on children and the sick, and an example of cheerfulness and courage, enabled Eudocia to bring harmony and even a semblance of social order out of the dreadful chaos around. Pietro undertook a similar office among the depressed and angry men. In every camp a steward, as in old Bohemian villages, directed the ‘common labors. Huts arose, stray cattle were collected, rough enclosures erected and new cultivation promised subsistence. Many died of actual want, and were laid away as tenderly as might be. The exhausted country gave sign of extreme dearth of food; and in many places even the seed corn was consumed. As the season of 1279–80 advanced, a dreadful drought multiplied the afflictions of the peasantry. Food ceased. Famished creatures wandered aimlessly along the desolate roads until they fell never to arise, and skeletons strewed the deserted and grass-grown tracks. The starving crowded to the doors of those who still possessed a morsel, and fiercely snatched food from the inmates. Bands of Tartars still infested the borders, until the threat of utter ruin compelled Rudolph to interpose. Amid these scenes Pietro and Eudocia went; and by their means supplies saved many wretched camps from utter annihilation. Many regions became totally desolate, and not until 1281 was the dreadful famine alleviated by generous showers, and the production of a
