- These three party boys I told you about are sitting down in a tavern to drink even before morning Mass.
- As they're sitting there, they hear a small bell ringing before a corpse that's being carried to his grave.
- One of them says to a nearby boy, "Run and ask who died, and make sure to remember his name."
- "Sire," says the boy, "I don't need to. I learned the name about two hours before you got here. He was an old friend of yours. And suddenly he was killed last night while drunk, as he sat on his bench.
- A thief that men call Death came by; he kills all the people in this country. He cut your friend's heart in two, and went away without saying anything.
- He's killed a thousand people around here during this plague.
- And, master, you'd better be ready at any moment to meet such an adversary. That's what my mother said."
- "By Saint Mary!'" says the bartender, "This kid's telling the truth. Death's killed men, women, children, and servants in a village just a mile from here. He must live there.
- "You'd be smart to be careful before you get hurt."