"And lest things which should be remembered perish with time and vanish from the memory of those who are to come after us, I, seeing so many evils and the whole world, as it were, placed within the grasp of the Evil One, being myself as if among the dead, I, waiting for death, have put into writing all the things that I have witnessed.

"And, lest the writing should perish with the writer and the work fail with the labourer, I leave parchment to continue this work, if perchance any man survive and any of the race of Adam escape this pestilence and carry on the work which I have begun . . ."

At this point the narrative breaks off and is followed by a note in another hand:

"Here, it seems, the author died."

Brother John Clyn, Kilkenny, 1349

 

See, Connie Willis' book Doomesday, available online at http://vietmessenger.com/books/?cat=english&title=doomsdaybook&page=1

 

Or the BBC's article on the Black Death, especially http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/society_culture/welfare/black_08.shtml