These diseases were, however, little noticed, and there was consequently no attempt made to diminish their causes. It became daily more and more apparent, that the cutting off of the sources near Poggio reale, which Lautrec had commanded, in order to compel the besieged to a more speedy surrender, was in the highest degree injurious to the besiegers themselves; for the water, having now no outlet, spread over the plain where the camp was situated, which it converted into a swamp, whence it rose, morning and evening, in the form of thick fogs. From this cause, and while a southerly wind continued to prevail, the sickness soon became general. Those soldiers, who were not already confined to bed in their tents, were seen with pallid visages, swelled legs, and bloated bellies, scarcely able to crawl; so that, weary of nightly watching, they were often plundered by the marauding Neapolitans. The great mortality did not commence until about the 15th of July, but so dreadful was its ravages, that about three weeks were sufficient to complete the almost entire destruction of the army[501]. Around and within the tents vacated by the death of their inmates, noxious weeds sprang up. Thousands perished without help, either in a state of stupor, or in the raving delirium of fever[502]. In the entrenchments, in the tents, and wherever death had overtaken his victims, there unburied corpses lay, and the dead that were interred, swollen with putridity, burst their shallow graves, and spread a poisonous stench far and wide over the camp. There was no longer any thought of order or military discipline, and many of the commanders and captains were either sick themselves, or had fled to the neighbouring towns, in order to avoid the contagion[503].
The glory of the French arms was departed, and her proud banners cowered beneath an unhallowed spectre. Meanwhile the pestilence broke out among the Venetian galleys under Pietro Lando. Doria had already gone over to the Emperor[504], and thus was this expedition, begun under the most favourable auspices, frustrated on every side by the malignant influence of the season.