Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 Vol 2.djvu/22

Rh of swiftly-coming dawn, I gladly sallied forth. The rain had ceased, the cold and air felt freshening, the stars had shone brightly in the dark sky when I had looked out before, and now shapeless masses of ruin rose still blacker against it wherever I could see. Crossing a space encumbered with beams and fragments, with deep mud and water from ponded drainage, I clambered up a huge heap, beside the tower of a fallen church, and from the vantage-point, looked over the desolation of the prostrate city. Alone, and at that cold and silent hour, the impression was one never to be forgotten. I descended at the opposite side, over the massive walls broken into steps, between huge fragments, and on slopes of rubbish; as I reached the level of the interior, something caught my foot—I stooped and found it was a long and broad piece of ancient-looking lace, that had decked some crushed altar. While I looked at it, a large piece of wall came toppling from the still standing part of the tower above, and crashed into fragments upon the talus of rubble down which I had just come, and over which I had again to make my way back to our head-quarters.

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