Tudor rose  
 a blazon with the monogram of 'A' (Andro) superimposed on ♡ (Hart)  
 Scottish thistle  
NEWS FROM ITALY: OR, A prodigious, and most lamentable Accident, lately befallen: Concerning the swallowing up of the whole City of PLEURS: Belonging to the Signiory of VENICE.  
Which happened in the beginning of September last passed: by a strange and hideous shaking, and opening of the Earth.  
Together with the loss of more than two thousand People: and a general burning up of the Trees and Forests within the Territories of the said City.  
Faithfully translated out of the French Copy,  
Printed at PARIS, 1618.   Scottish thistle 
¶ Imprinted at Edinburgh, by Andro Hart. Anno Domini 1619.   

A Prodigious, and most lamentable accident, Lately befallen the City of PLEURS, Belonging to the Signiory of VENICE: Which happened in the beginning of September last passed, 1618.  
SUch is the pravity of our nature, that we always rather feel the smart of God's Divine vengeance falling upon us, than weigh the counsels and purpose of his heart, which he aimeth at in the midst of his wrath, punishing and correcting us for our just deserts, by which we have coustrained him to turn his mercy into justice, and favour and benefits, into rods and scourges.  
The effects whereof falling out daily before our eyes, in this behalf, tend to none other end, but to rouse us out of that lethargy of sin into which we be fallen, and to let out the swelling of our pride: that at the length we may carefully advise ourselves, before our final desolation fall upon our heads. But (alas) we are so hoodwinked, and senseless, in the midst of this our misery, that for want of a discerning eye, we are ready to attribute all missehappe to secondary causes, and to extraordinary effects: rather than wisely to bethink us, in judging, that the root from whence all our evils spring, is from ourselves.  
From none other cause proceedeth all the casualties which happen every day in our sight: but especially of late years, as well by the last effects of Fire, air, and Water, as by other unawonted accidents, proceeding from the elements, which God useth as his rods to afflict man withal.  
We know, that within a year, or there about, what hath happened both in France, and elsewhere, to the great astonishment of mortal men, who are but dust and ashes, and whereat indeed the greatest wits have stood amazed.  
Spain was at her wits end, in admiring that Deluge which befell in the Earldom of Barcellonne, with much ruin and loss in this very month and time of the year.  
France itself hath had no cause to mock at her neighbours harms, but to be wholly taken up with fear, having seen, the Lenton last passed, 1618. the wonderful burning and consumption of the Palace of her head City; the Sanctuary of the Innocent, the terror of the guilty, where the Oracles of Truth were every day to be heard, by uncorrupt ARISTIDES, inflexible in the cause of Equity, and a just conserver of Right and Reason.  
But all this is but a little, in respect of that, which as we hear, happened upon the countries belonging to the Signiory of VENICE, in the beginning of this present month of September, to the ruin and utter loss of the Town, or City, of PLEURS: namely, that about that time, the fourth, or the fifth, of this present month, happened upon the Territories of the said City such a fearful and prodigious storm, mingled with thundering and lightnings, with wind and tempest, that it seemed Heaven and Earth would have gone together, and that the last times, foretold by Daniel, were now inflicted there: and that which is worthy of greatest wonder and astonishment, was an exceeding vehement wind, enclosed and shut up within the bowels & hollowness of the earth, with certain fires burning under the ground, which with their violent encountering each of other, with blasts, & counterblasts, made such an hideous noise within those holes and narrow places, wherewith the Country was filled, that it caused a very strange shaking, or trembling, of the Earth: yea, so fearful, that the effects ensuing thereof are incredible: Thence came the total and deplorable loss of the said City of PLEURS, somewhat greater, and better peopled, than is S. Denis in France. For the Earth opening itself, by the vehemency of these fires under the ground, and the blusteringes of these winds enclosed within her bowels, and in seeking vent, that in this opening and trembling of the earth, the said City was wholly sunken and swallowed up, with all and every one of the houses and buildings, with the loss of more than two thousand souls, craving for mercy in so great, so sudden, and unexpected a calamity. And within the said Territory, many Trees, Woods, & Forests, were some of them overthrown by the winds, and othersome were consumed and burnt, aswell by the fire of heaven, as by the flames issuing forth, and vomited from out of the bowels of the earth: Which struck such an astonishment into the neighbour Countries, that all fell to prayers, made public and solemn processions: taking it for a certain forewarning of God's mercy turned into fury, and for a sure undoubted token, that his anger is kindled against the sons of men: seeking hereby to appease him in the midst of his just conceived displeasure.   

The former Relation, More particularly set forth, in an Aviso, of the Lords of the States of HELVETIA and the GRISONS.  
Faithfully translated, according to the Copy Printed at MILAN, 1618.  
THE effects of Nature are of so deep comprehension, as the most subtle Philosophers have lost themselves in the admiration thereof. The flowing and ebb of an Eurypus made him lose all his reason, who laboured to settle the principles and grounds thereof: And he who so searched into the course and original of it, returned from thence astonished with wonder, and besotted with ignorance. In brief, her secrets are so dark and hidden, as mortal eyes can make no discovery thereof: God, the Author of Nature, reserving, as a particular to himself, the knowledge of those mysteries, with a bar to all others to enter into them. And if man can challenge to himself any little taste thereof, he hath it by purchase from that great distributer of knowledge, and with the price of pains and travels innumerable.  Dii laboribus omnia vendunt. 
The accident which happened in fresh memory, about a month since, in a certain Town called Pleurs, subject to the State of the Grisons, a people confining with the Territory of Milan, and with Switzer-land, cannot but beget in us both astonishment and admiration together: astonishment, for the strangeness: admiration, in that we are not able to comprehend the cause and ground thereof. This is not the fable of removing mountains, & heaping one upon the top of another by Ovid's giants, to scale Heaven withal: but a true fact, which as it made the Earth to tremble, so may it do the hearts of the most courageous men, and make them shake, by shaking things, to all men's thought, immovable: so as now we can ground no firm assurance upon Rocks, and Change reigneth by course over all things. This Town of Pleurs, above named, seated upon the land, and amongst the people of the Grisons, is subject for the Temporalities, unto the Lords of that State: and for the Spiritualities, in as much as it is wholly Popish, (excepting only three or four houses,) it is under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Como. It is rich, well peopled, famous for Trade, the Kirkes' (well recommended for their building, rich Ornaments, and Treasure,) seem sufficiently to witness the piety of that people. One of them was consecrate under the name of Saint john of Silan: and the other, more renowned than that, by the name of Saint Cassian.  
The particulars as well of this Country, as of this Town, which are not indeed of our discourse, cannot but be tedious to the Reader, who attendeth with impatience the news of a case so strange as this is. This Town is in a Valley, under the mountain Chrovena, in near neighbourhood, and not above the distance of two leagues from the confines of Milan: and of like dearness to the port of Tuentes; standing upon the bank of the Lake of Como, where passeth the River of Mora: which River, although it carry a strong and violent current, yet can it not, in any reason, be presumed to have been the cause of this ruin whereof we are to speak. Nature had fortified this Town, and immured it, as it were, betwixt two mountains: the one whereof was singularly fertile in Winter, and other Fruits of the Earth making her appear with another countenance, than of an hideous Rock: which could promise no pleasure nor delight, but of such an Hill as supplied the Inhabitants with infinite commodities, underground Caves, & Gardens, Storehouses; and other commodious places, which they found within the bosom of this mountain, with all sorts of pleasures, delights, and delicates. This other Hill, which is above Silano, and beyond the River, is somewhat more distant from the Town, which, it seemeth, Nature had purposely removed from the same, lest it might (perhaps) too much shadow and obscure it, that the great multitude of trees wherewith this Hill was replenished, being of itself higher and steeper than the former, and yet bearing (notwithstanding the steepness) both hay and wood, for the supply of this Town. Close to this mountain there stood another, much higher than the same, and wholly barrend and desarted: a fatal Hill, and destined to the ruin of this miserable Town, and all her inhabitants.  
The fourth day of this instant month of September, this great and steep Hill was shaken, either by some winds under the ground, or by some secret tempest which Nature raised from within her bowels: in such fort, as about six a clock in the evening, that which seemed to be unmovable, was seen in a short space to be pulled up by the roots, and borne away by the fury of the winds. A strange case, there never having been seen so great and fearful an Earthquake. This mountain then being shaken with his fury, fell with such violence upon that unhappy Town, as it buried both it, and all the inhabitants together. It was about Suppertime, at what time the most part of the Townsmen were set at Table, when they found themselves overwhelmed with these so mighty ruins, under which, at an instant they gave up the ghost. Scarcely was any man exempted, for of three thousand & six hundredth persons, which at that time were reckoned to be in the Town, there escaped only four, of whom we will speak more particularly hereafter. The loss of goods was exceeding great, inasmuch as the esteemate thereof passeth three Millions of Gold. The rage and tempestuous force of the winds was so outrageous, as they that were in the fields felt themselves thereby transported into places wholly unknown. The Lord Laurence Scandolera reporteth, that being in a Garden of his, with his Niece, he was borne by the violence of that tempest above and beyond the River: and he was found on a little Hill, called Ronco, having a Napkin at his Shoulder, and his Legs broken off. In the same place were likewise found the little Bells of Saint Maries Kirke, borne by the like violence out of the Steeple to that place, being half a league from the said Kirke. To conclude, this bouncing was so terrible, and the bruit spread so far, that all the neighbouring Countries presently took the cry, and stood affrighted with the horror thereof.  
The people coming a little to themselves, ran to behold this spectacle, where in stead of finding a Town, in the valley before mentioned, they found an high and fearful mountain, having within its entrails swallowed the whole company of its poor inhabitants: no man escaping, save only four, as were said, whom we will name in particular, to give more assurance to the truth of the fact.  
A Mother there desirous to save her Child, lost her legs, yet could not recover him whom she held dearest in the world. A young man, called Francis Torno, who was gone down into one of the Vaults under ground (which before we mentioned, and described in the first Mountain) to draw wine. Another young fellow, who a little before was gone to a vinyeard, on the same mountain, to gather Peaches. And the fourth was the Lord Scandolera, of whom we before recounted that miraculous story.  
The River Mora, which watered all this Valley, hath thereby lost its natural and ordinary current: and hath been enforced to recover its course more than a league from the place. This is the sum of what happened in the places afore said, being in truth a wonder unmatchable in any Age.  
The Deeps below, and Fire above, hold some extraordinary power of Nature: but to see mountains remove, and change their places, we must in truth avouch, that this thing is so high, and the causes so hidden, as human wit cannot pierce into the depth of these profound mysteries. To make Nature so potent, as to give occasion for the world to think, that this accident proceeded from the force of the winds, which perhaps were shut up within the womb of the Earth, and there had intermixed with some enclosed fire, which having undermined this mountain, did in such sort overturn it, were to attribute unto Nature too much force and strength. To call to remembrance another Sodom, whereof this is the image, the colours only excepted, I mean the form of their destruction: to ascribe this calamity to the judgement of God, were to partake with the secrets of the Highest, and as companions to his Throne, to give sentence against his people. Therefore, suspending our judgements, let us humble ourselves before God, lest the like thing happen unto us.  
FINIS.