Otranto. Four prostitutes, “all beautiful and adorned,” are sent within the walls by Ferrante, King of Naples. They are unaware that they are intentionally dressed in plague-infected clothing. That disease kills more people than war is a well-known fact at the time. They will be “happily, carnally, and incessantly known to the Turks.” But the treacherous introduction of attractive and contagious girls into the city (and never mind if the epidemic would have made no distinction between Christians and Muslims…) is not enough to subdue the Turks, who have enough grain for a year’s siege and have intercepted a brackish spring that provides them with water autonomy. The Turks also adopt a ploy inherited from the Mongol hordes: they light ten times more fires than necessary on the walls, to give the impression of an enormous number of guards and soldiers.
