“do you never deviate?”—john bull.
it was on the evening of the 7th of november, 18—, that i went by invitation to sup with my friend p., at his house in highstreet, mary-le-bone. the only other person present was a portuguese, by name senor mendez, p.’s mercantile agent at lisbon, a person of remarkably retentive memory, and most wonderful power of description. the conversation somehow turned upon the memorable great earthquake at lisbon, in the year of our lord——, and senor mendez, who was residing at that time in the portuguese capital, gave us a very lively picture—if lively it may be called—of the horrors of that awful convulsion of nature. the picture was dreadful; the senor’s own house, a substantial stone mansion, was rent from attic to cellar: and the steeple of his parish church left impending over it at an angle surpassing that of the famous leaning tower of bologna!
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the portuguese had a wonderfully expressive countenance, with a style of narration indescribably vivid; and as i listened with the most intense interest, every dismal circumstance of the calamity became awfully distinct to my apprehension. i could hear the dreary ringing of the bells, self-tolled from the rocking of the churches; the swaying to and fro of the steeples themselves, and the unnatural heavings and swellings of the tagus, were vividly before me. as the agitations increased, the voice of the senor became awfully tremulous, and his seat seemed literally to rock under him. i seemed palsied, and could see from p.’s looks that he was similarly affected. to conceal his disorder, he kept swallowing large gulps from his rummer, and i followed his example.
“do thy spiriting gently.”
this was only the first shock;—the second soon followed, and, to use a popular expression, it made us both
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“shake in our shoes.” terrific, however, as it was, the third was more tremendous; the order of nature seemed reversed; the ships in the tagus sank to the bottom, and their ponderous anchors rose to the surface; volcanic fire burst forth from the water, and water from dry ground; the air, no longer elastic, seemed to become a stupendous solid; swaying to and fro, and irresistibly battering down the fabrics of ages; hollow rumblings and moanings as from the very centre of the world, gave warning of deafening explosions, which soon followed, and seemed to shake the very stars out of the sky. all this time the powerful features of the senor kept working, in frightful imitation of the convulsion he was describing, and the effect was horrible; i saw p. quiver like an aspen—there seemed no such thing as terra firma. our chairs rocked under us; the floor tossed and heaved; the candles wavered, the windows clattered, and the teaspoons rang again, as our tumblers vibrated in our hands.
senor mendez at length concluded his narrative, and shortly took leave; i staid but a few minutes after him, just to make a remark on the appalling character of the story, and then departed myself,—little thinking, that any part of the late description was to be so speedily realised by my own experience!
the hour being late, and the servants in bed, p. himself accompanied me to the door. i ought to remark here that the day had been uncommonly serene—not a breath stirring, as was noticed on the morning of the great catastrophe at lisbon; however, p. had barely closed the door, when a sudden and violent motion of the earth threw me from the step on which i was standing, to the middle of the pavement; i had got partly up when a second shock, as smart as the first, threw me again on the ground. with some difficulty i recovered my legs a second time, the earth in the mean time heaving about under me like the deck of a ship at sea. the street lamps, too, seemed violently agitated, and the houses nodded over me as if they
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would fall every instant. i attempted to run, but it was impossible; i could barely keep on my feet. at one step i was dashed forcibly against the wall; at the next i was thrown into the road; as the motion became more violent i clung to a lamp-post, but it swayed with me like a rush. a great mist came suddenly on, but i could perceive people hurrying about, all staggering like drunken men; some of them addressing me, but so confusedly as to be quite unintelligible; one—a lady—passed close to me in evident alarm: seizing her hand, i besought her to fly with me from the falling houses, into the open fields; what answer she made i know not, for at that instant, a fresh shock threw me on my face with such violence as to render me quite insensible. providentially, in this state i attracted the notice of some of the night police, who humanely deposited me, for safety, in st. anne’s watch-house, till the following morning; when being sufficiently recovered to give a collected account of that eventful evening, the ingenious mr. w., of the morning herald, was so much interested by my narrative that he kindly did me the favour of drawing it up for publication in the following form.
“well! i never could keep my legs!”
police intelligence.—bow street.
“this morning a stout country gentleman, in a new suit of
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mud, evidently town made, was charged with having walked waverly over-night till he got his kennelworth in a gutter in mary-le-bone. the jack-o’-lanthorn who picked him up could make nothing out of him, but that he was some sort of a quaker, and declared that the whole country was in a shocking state. he acknowledged having taken rather too much lisbon; but according to mr. daly, he sniffed of whiskey ‘as strong as natur.’ the defendant attempted with a sotto voce (anglice, a tipsy voice), to make some excuse, but was stopped and fined in the usual sum, by sir richard. he found his way out of the office, muttering that he thought it very hard to have to pay five hogs for being only as drunk as one.”
