By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
Ver. 18. The third part of men killed] Not only of Christians, but also of their own; most of their poor being forced with victuals and other necessaries to follow their great armies in their long expeditions, of whom scarcely one of ten do ever return home again, but there perish by the way; if not by the enemy's sword, yet by the wants, intemperateness of the air, or immoderate painstaking.
By the brimstone] By the gunpowder, or by their sulphured bow strings, which they discharge as out of their mouths, whereunto they draw or lay them.