Page:Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857 Vol 2.djvu/239

178 her infant, and atone for having forgotten it, courageously ventured into her falling dwelling, and was returning with the beloved pledge, when the house suddenly fell and crushed her and her child. The devastation and destruction of the capital partially observed that night, became more apparent with returning day, and in proportion to the interior examination of the public and private buildings. Although, at first sight, a palace or house seemed outwardly uninjured, or but little damaged, within it was found so much so as to render it dangerous for habitation.

Besides the palace of the Intendente, the churches, and especially the cathedral, were rent open, destroyed, or shaken; also the courts, the monastery of Chiariste, that of the Reformed Fathers, called S. Maria, the Royal College, the House di Rami Riuniti, the prisons, the civil and military hospital, the prison hospital, the gendarmes barrack, and that of the reserved battalion, the telegraphic office, and the Mansion House. The damage was incalculable; in a word, the traveller who contemplates Potenza from a distance, sees the same outline and image, but when he approaches the town, he learns how true it is that we must not judge by outward appearance. However, several houses escaped almost uninjured. It is much to be lamented that this city, frequently destroyed from the same cause, as we learn from ancient chronicles, and just beginning to rise in the scale of civilization and improvement, under the influence of the estimable Intendente, should again be prostrated by such a calamity; at the very time, too, that improvements and decorations for the benefit of the citizens were in progress. The foundation of a new theatre had been laid, the new Royal College was commenced, and the project of a new street and sewerage, a work requisite to the sanity and cleanliness of the town, had been started. Whilst all were employed the next day, building sheds in the open spaces, away from the houses, messengers arrived from the different communes of the province, bringing sad intelligence to the Intendente; and within a few days it was known that on that night, and at that hour, every commune had suffered from the earthquake, or, at least, had strongly felt the shock and vibration. It would be tedious and useless to enumerate particular losses. But the great ruins of