92 JUNE 



leading to this place, and warned the servants not 

 to go near. Then we had up all the men we could 

 get, bearers, sweepers, grooms, even the cook ; all 

 with brooms and baskets clearing away the fallen 

 plaster from the drawing-room carpets. Tremors 

 were continually going on all that night and even 

 during the next day, and whenever I went upstairs, 

 I felt as dizzy as when on a pitching steamer at sea, 

 and I found it absolutely necessary to hold on to 

 the banisters. This was very much like a wreck 

 on dry land ; the sudden feeling of having nowhere 

 to stand, sit, or lie with security. We took needful 

 things downstairs that night, and slept on chairs. 

 The next morning, Sunday, coolies and people were 

 fetched in, and we hurried all the furniture, pictures, 

 and piano out of the drawing-room as fast as we 

 could, and stacked and piled them in the billiard- 

 room ; which we hoped was water-tight, being 

 newly built. We worked like slaves, racing the 

 downpour which we knew must come. Before 

 we had finished, it came, a terrific onslaught. 



" Come away down," said the master, " it isn't 

 safe; the roof will be in"; but there were still some 

 carved Algerian brackets on the wall that could not 



