Page:The Rambler in Mexico.djvu/110

104 dreaming fancy of finding myself suddenly trotting among broken rocks on the back of our fat mule.

When we arrived at the city we heard that another had occurred at six o'clock that very morning; though we, who, at that very time, were getting to horse in the courtyard of the meson at three leagues' distance, had been totally unconscious of it. These were the first; and glancing over my diary I see notices of daily shocks occurring, at different intervals, for about ten days after our arrival.

According to many who had the means of making the observations, for several entire days the earth was found to exhibit a tremulous motion, with very short intervals of complete repose.

The strongest shock of which I was myself aware, was felt about eleven on the 22d, when I was roused from the perusal of a newspaper in the apartments of the American charge d'affaires, by a sensation of confusion and giddiness; and, on raising my eyes, saw the curtains and candelabras in motion. On going to the elevated balcony, the scene presented by the broad and spacious thoroughfare below was one of the most striking I ever saw. There was no terror and no confusion in the street. Each individual of the passing multitude, as far as we could see, was on his knees—each in the spot where he had become sensible of the terrible phenomenon—the half-naked Indian beside the veiled dama, and the loathsome leper beside the gaudily dressed official. The rider kneeled beside his horse, and the arriero among his mules; the carriages had halted, and their gay contents bent in clusters in the centre of the pavement. The bustle of the crowded thoroughfare had become hushed, and nothing was heard but a low murmur of pattered prayers; while, with a slow, lateral motion from north to south, the whole city swung like a ship at anchor, for about the space of a minute and a half. When the shock was over, the multitude rose; and each went about his business with a nonchalance which proved how the frequent recurrences of this phenomenon had nerved the public mind. In fact, it is seldom that they are of a