VOL. XLIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 43 



and nourishments administered. Some days after the intendant came to see 

 them, and found the wife still unable to rise from her bed, or use her feet, from 

 the intense cold she had endured, and the uneasiness of the posture she had been 

 in. The sister, whose legs had been bathed with hot wine, could walk with 

 some difficulty ; and the daughter needed no further remedies, being quite re- 

 covered. 



On the intendant's interrogating the women, they told him, that their ap- 

 petite was not yet returned ; that the little food they had eaten (excepting broths 

 and gruels) lay heavy on their stomachs, and that the moderate use of wine had 

 done them great good : they also gave him the account that follows : that on 

 the morning of the 1 Qth of March they were in the stable, with a boy 6 years 

 old and the girl about 1 3 : in the same stable were 6 goats, one of which having 

 brought forth 2 dead kids the evening before, they went to carry her a small 

 vessel full of gruel ; there were also an ass and 5 or 6 fowls. They were shel- 

 tering themselves in a warm corner of the stable, till the church bell should ring, 

 intending to attend the service. 



That the wife wanting to go out of the stable to kindle a fire in the house for 

 her husband, who was then clearing away the snow from the top, she perceived 

 a mass of snow breaking down towards the east, on which she went back into 

 the stable, and shut the door. In less than 3 minutes they heard the roof break 

 over their heads, and part of the ceiling of the stable. The sister advised her to 

 get into the rack and manger, which she did. The ass was tied to the manger, 

 but got loose by kicking and struggling, and though it did not break the manger, 

 it threw down the little vessel, which the sister took up, and used afterwards to 

 hold the melted snow which served them for drink. 



Very fortunately the manger was under the main prop of the stable, and re- 

 sisted the weight of the snow. Their first care was to know what they had to 

 eat: the sister said, she had in her pocket 15 white chestnuts : the children said 

 they had breakfasted, and should want no more that day. They remembered 

 there were 30 or 40 loaves in a place near the stable, and endeavoured to get at 

 them, but were not able, by reason of the vast quantity of snow. On this they 

 called out for help as loudly as they possibly could, but were heard by nobody. 

 The sister came again to the manger, after she had tried in vain to come at the 

 loaves, and gave 2 chestnuts to the wife, also eating 2 herself, and they drank 

 some snow water. All this while the ass v^'as very restless and continued kick- 

 ing, and the goats bleated very much, but soon after they heard no more of 

 them. Two of the goats however were left alive, and were near the manger; 

 they felt them very carefully, and knew by so doing that one of them was big, 

 and would kid about the middle of April ; the other gave milk, with which they 

 preserved their lives. The women affirmed, that during all the time they were 



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