Page:Account of several remarkable earthquakes which have happened in various quarters of the world (1).pdf/9

 on hearkening more attentively, I was soon, as I found it was owing to a strange  kind of noise under ground, resembling  hollow distant rumbling of thunder: all this  in less than a minute, and I must confess  began to be alarmed, as it naturally occurred  me, that this noise might possibly be the  of an earthquake, as one I remembered,  had happened about six or seven years ago,  the island of Madeira, commenced in the same , though it did little or no damage.

'Upon this I threw down my pen, and started my feet, remaining a moment in suspence,  I should stay in the apartment, or run  the street, as the danger in both places  equal, and still flattering myself that this  might produce no other effects than such  ones as had been felt at Madeira;  in a moment I was roused from my dream,  instantly stunned with a most horrid crash,  if every edifice in the city had tumbled down  once. The house I was in shook with such, that the upper stories immediately fell, though my apartment (which was the first ) did not then share the same fate, yet every  was thrown out of its place in such a , that it was with no small difficulty I kept my , and expected nothing less than to be soon  to death, as the walls continued rocking to and fro in the frightfullest manner, opening in several places, large stones falling down on every  from the cracks, and the ends of most of the  starting out from the roof. To add to this scene, the sky in a moment became so, that I could now distinguish no  objects, it was an Egyptian darkness indeed,  as might be felt; owing, no doubt, to the