Page:Awful phenomena of nature (2).pdf/16

 of the ſtreet that opens to the Tagus; but finding the paſſage this way entirely blocked up with the fallen houſes to the height of their ſecond ſtories, turned back to the other end which led into the main ſtreet (the common thoroughfare to the palace and having helped the woman over a vaſt heap of ruins, with no ſmall hazard to my own life, juſt as we were going into the ſtreet, as there was one part I could not well climb over without the aſſiſtance of my hands, as well as feet, I deſired her to let go her hold, which ſhe did, remaining two or three feet behind me, at which time there fell a vaſt ſtone, from a tottering wall, and cruſhed both her and the child in pieces: ſo diſmal a ſpectacle at any other time would have affected me in the higheſt degree, but the dread I was in of ſharing the ſame fate myſelf, and the many inſtances of the ſame kind which preſented themſelves all around, were too ſhoking to make me dwell a moment on this ſingle object.

'I had now a long narrow ſtreet to paſs, with the houſes on each ſide four or five ſtories high, all very old, the greater part already thrown down, or continually falling, and threatening the paſſengers with inevitable death at every ſtep, numbers of whom lay killed before me, or what I thought far more deplorable--ſo bruiſed and wounded that they could not ſtir to help themſelves. For my own part, as deſtruction appeared to me unavoidable, I only wiſhed I might be made an end of at once, and not have my limbs broken, in which caſe I could expect nothing elſe but to be left upon the ſpot, lingering in miſery, like theſe poor unhappy wretches, without receiving the leaſt ſuccour from any perſon.

'As ſelf-preſervation, however, is the firſt law of nature, theſe ſad thoughts did ſo far prevail, as