It does not appear from his sonnets, during those years, either that his passion for Laura had abated, or that she had given him any more encouragement than heretofore.

But in the year 1334, an accident renewed the utmost tenderness of his affections.

A terrible affliction visited the city of Avignon.

The heat and the drought were so excessive that almost the whole of the common people went about naked to the waist, and, with frenzy and miserable cries, implored Heaven to put an end to their calamities.

Persons of both sexes and of all ages had their bodies covered with scales, and changed their skins like serpents.
Laura's constitution was too delicate to resist this infectious malady, and her illness greatly alarmed Petrarch.