Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857.djvu/430

344 the shock, and the tower has since been taken down, to the level of the centre of the mock clock dial. By careful measurements of the standing portion, and by comparison of the taken down pieces, with the sketches and description of the Sotto Intendente, I was able to restore the design of the superstructure, and obtain a close approximation to its original height. Both bells oscillated in a plane, parallel to the axial line of the church. At the shock, whose wave-path passed obliquely through the open arches on the summit of the campanile, the jambs or side piers separated enough from each other, to permit the bells to be released from their pintles, and these were thrown to the ground, in the direction shown in Fig. 206. The larger bell remained unbroken, having fallen amidst some rubbish on the ground; the smaller was destroyed, having descended from a greater height and fallen on hard ground. The piers did not come down at once with the bells, but fell shortly after. The place where the smaller bell struck the ground, could not be ascertained with certainty, but the Padre, the Sotto Intendente, and others, were agreed upon, and pointed out precisely, the spot where the large bell had alighted; and its path of descent was also indicated by the breaches, which it had made in falling, in the eave tiles of the roof, and in those of a string course of the external flank wall of the church, near the campanile. The bell itself had been removed into the church (but the fallen rubbish was still on the ground): it is very antique and remarkable for its form, and is correctly sketched in Fig. 206, No. 2. It bears an inscription in Lombardic (?) characters, and a date which I presume to be 1324 or 1336. The Padre, who is accustomed to judge of the weight of bells,