well-known words, "Blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord. Yea, saith the Spirit, for they rest
from their labours." As these words came forth,
those outside burst into a passion of tears,
which was soon choked, in order that they
might hear if the voice spoke again. There
were some deep groans, apparently wrung from
the speaker by intense pain, and then the same
voice spoke in a calm and even tone, as though
addressing a congregation: "For the Lord himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump
of God."

Silence followed for some minutes, and then
a deep voice came forth which was so low that
only I and a few others near the hole could hear
it: "Father, into thy hands I commit my
spirit," and with the utterance of those words
of faith and prayer the spirit must have left the
tortured body, for not a sound was heard after
this except the piteous prayers of a child. Being
too weak to assist in the efforts that were making
to enlarge the opening, I left the spot with a
sad heart.

What I saw as I wandered through the ruined
city on the following morning was more
horrible still. In the principal street, where the
largest shops and warehouses stood, scarcely
a wall was left standing. The inhabitants of
the houses, their cattle in the stables, and
the rich merchandise which filled the shops,
were all entombed beneath a mass of stones and
timber. The street itself was almost blocked
up with rubbish; and it was here that portions
of the mutilated bodies of victims were
most numerous, owing to its being traversed
by a great number of people who at the time of
the occurrence of the calamity had left their
houses to take the usual evening walk, or were
returning from the numerous churches. The
fronts of some of the houses, instead of crumbling
to pieces, had fallen outward in a mass,
crushing and burying, or partially burying, those
who were passing at the moment. In one place
a priest was lying, the lower part of his body
flattened beneath a huge beam, his head resting
uninjured on his left arm, his right arm stretched
out, his hand still holding a parcel of Las Novedades
newspaper, which he had probably fetched
just before from the post-office. Further on, a
woman and two little children lay beneath a
window-frame and some large stones, some of
which I moved, in the hope that life might still
remain among them. All, however, were dead;
one of the little creatures had been struck on
the neck, but the other, who was enveloped all
but the feet in her mother's dress, had seemingly
been suffocated, for I could perceive no sign of
external injury, and the expression of the face
was that of sleep. It was a pretty little creature,
with fair hair and blue eyes, and I sat and
held it on my knees for some minutes looking at
it, while my thoughts were fixed on a little
darling in a distant land whom I fancied she
resembled.

Not to harrow the feelings of those who read
this with instances of individual mutilation, I
will not mention any more of the cases of this
kind which met my view by scores in the course
of the morning. The hospital, in which there
were many sick persons, met with the same fate
as the cathedral, the inmates being all crushed
or suffocated. The palace of the archbishop was
overthrown. The governor's palace was shaken
down piecemeal, his wife and daughter rushing
from one part to another seeking to escape,
while the governor himself, who (I was told) was
outside at the time, vainly endeavoured to make
his way in, to rescue them or share their fate.
I heard of the most extraordinary instances
of escape. The tower of one of the churches
fell in a mass across the open space in front
of the church. A Spaniard, his wife, and two
children, were passing at the moment; the man,
who had just turned to take his children in his
arms, was crushed, together with his little children,
while his wife, who was not a yard distant
from him, escaped unhurt, as did also, with the
exception of a few bruises, five persons who
were standing within the basement of the tower
when it fell. A woman had been ordered to
fetch some water from a spring, but had
neglected to do it, which made her master so angry,
that, on her refusing to go, he took her by the
arm and put her out of the house. She had
only got as far as the open space which
surrounded the nearest church, when the earth-
quake took place, which shook down the house
from which she had just been expelled, and
killed all who were in it. One Pietro Mastai,
the driver of a public vehicle, had just left a
wine-shop at the corner of a little street facing
the church of Vera Cruz, with a friend of his,
a muleteer, when the latter saw something
glittering at his feet. He picked it up, and it
was a small silver coin. Both turned back
to spend the money in wine. At the door
the muleteer turned round and jestingly told
Pietro that he should not share it; and with
the rough playfulness of that class, he gave
Pietro a push which sent him staggering some
distance. Before he had time to recover himself
and follow his friend, the earthquake came, the
wine-shop crumbled to pieces, and buried all
within its walls, leaving him standing at the
threshold uninjured.

In spite of the efforts which were immediately begun
to recover bodies from the ruins, comparatively
few of the many thousands buried beneath
them have yet been dug out; to heighten the
horrible nature of this labour, immediately after
the calamity rain fell in torrents, which, joined
to the intense heat, caused putrefaction to
proceed with great rapidity. The atmosphere was
still further poisoned by the noxious vapours
which rose from the numerous cracks in the
ground. Many are still open in various places,
though the largest of them—from which, I am
informed, torrents of hot black sand were thrown
out during the earthquake—is closed.

It is not possible yet to form any accurate
estimate of the number who have perished, but
they probably amount to several thousands.
Of the pecuniary loss this frightful calamity has