Page:Lisbon and Cintra, Inchbold, 1907.djvu/28

Rh the world, was swept away with the two marble columns, eight yards high, which stood at the point of embarkation. Their counterparts have only quite recently been placed in a similar position on the present quay.

People who had fled to the shore ran back to the city and to the suburbs. The abandoning of their houses by wailing, despairing multitudes, gave rise to the outbreak of fire which began three hours after the earthquake, and lasted for four days. The fruit of many centuries of industry disappeared in a few hours. Immense riches and innumerable articles of value were lost in the churches, the houses of the fidalgos, and the dwellings of the merchants; millions in money, and precious stones of great value, the rarest in the world.

No human help could lighten the great disaster at all. The people assembled on the heights and watched their city being converted into a new Troy. "All assisted with terror," said a contemporary writer, "in that agony of a superb city, and saw perishing in cinders, or dispersing in smoke, the magnificencies of D. João V, which he had intended to endure through all the ages." The flames respected the splendid palaces no more than the meanest dwelling.

Among the vanished buildings was the royal palace, which had been admired throughout Europe for its wealth of treasures as well as for being a chef d'œuvre of architecture. The construction was begun in the reign of D. Manuel, and was finished by Philip II, the first of the Spanish kings, who ruled Portugal for sixty years.

It was the palace which gave its name to the Terreiro do Paço, and on that famous terrace in the cool evenings of the warmer months it was the fashion, in the days of D. José and D. Maria, before the great disaster, to fazer a lage—to do the pavement—said in the same way as 8