580 APPENDIX. 



At all events, let us be thankful for it, even in its present state. 1 1 

 will frustrate the hopes of those political adventurers, such as Kos- 

 suth and Garibaldi, whose chief aim is plunder, disguised under the 

 specious mask of patriotism. But to the storm, so sad and desolating 

 in its fury that my heart sickens whilst my pen commences to give 

 you a description of it. We had got all our hay in the very best 

 manner, and the crops of corn seemed smiling in every field around 

 us, whilst the continuation of unusually warm summer weather filled 

 every heart with joy. On the day of the disaster I had a picnic 

 party here of about one hundred and twenty people. After passing 

 a delightful afternoon in singing and in dancing, there seemed to be 

 no reason why their festivities should not be continued till the edge 

 of dark; but, about half-past seven, distant peals of grumbling 

 thunder forewarned us that mischief was on the stir. The people 

 ordered the three omnibuses, &c., in which they had come, to get 

 ready for departure ; but I desired them not to think of going away. 

 The storm, which was slowly approaching, might catch them on their 

 journey, and, as there were as many outside as inside passengers, 

 they would not fail to get steeped with rain ; and my advice to them 

 was, " Stay where you are : there is abundant shelter close at hand." 

 They followed my advice. Some got into the vehicles in the stable- 

 yard, while others took shelter in the temples at the pleasure-grounds. 

 Down came the rain in torrents, equal to anything I had ever seen 

 in the tropics. The thunder roared incessantly, and the lightning 

 flashed with fearful brilliancy, whilst the clouds assumed a red and 

 yellow colour, which I had never observed before. We were all of 

 us in the house, and astounded at what was going on in the heavens 

 above us. Suddenly there fell, in countless numbers, hailstones- 

 some as large as pullet-eggs. They broke eighty-one large glass 

 squares in the front of the house, and drove the fragments of glass 

 from the windows to the opposite wall in the room where we were 

 standing. One flash of lightning seemed to be in the very midst of 

 us. It struck a cherry-tree close to the stables. A woman in one 

 of the carriages was holding her parasol outside of the window, in 

 order to prevent the rain from entering. The parasol was struck and 

 broken by the lightning, whilst her forefinger, and arm up to the 

 elbow, were rendered perfectly numb, without having received the 



