house, refused to endanger their lives, as the shocks
were incessant and a high wall still standing threatened to topple over
upon them at any moment. They even endeavored to dissuade the muleteer
from any further effort, but the good creature replied that he was
indebted to the imprisoned lady for many kindnesses, and that he was
willing to risk his life in her behalf. One or two remained with him,
and they succeeded at last in releasing her, but were obliged to cut her
clothes from her body, as they seemed immovably nailed to the floor, the
Good Samaritan of a muleteer covering her with his own cloak. The bodies
of her husband, brother-in-law, two clerks and several servants were
recovered the next day and buried.

Another lady was found, when the ruins of her house were cleared away,
upon her knees, with her children surrounding her in the same
attitude--all dead! Their bodies were uninjured, so that it is probable
that they were suffocated by the dust of the falling walls. A gentleman
named Benitez, who had been standing at the door of his house, ran into
the centre of the street and fell upon his knees: a little boy from the
opposite doorway rushed in his terror into Benitez's arms. At that
moment the two houses fell, and in this attitude the bodies of the man
and the child were found the following day. A bride of twenty-four hours
was killed with three of her children by a previous marriage. A fourth
child was supposed also to have been killed, but on the third day a
soldier who was passing the house pierced a basket which was among the
ruins with his bayonet out of curiosity, when to his amazement a
childish voice cried out, "_Tengo hambre_" ("I am hungry"), and the
basket being lifted a living child was discovered, thus almost
miraculously saved.

One lady was crushed to death under the weight of the body of her
daughter, who could not move a limb, although she knew her mother was
dying beneath her. A beam had fallen transversely across the daughter,
and in this position she crouched, listening in agony to the
death-struggles of her parent. More, almost, than the bitterness of
death itself must have been the horror of such a situation and the
terrible contact during long hours of silent darkness with a cold, rigid
corpse. This lady belonged to the family of Fonseca-Acosta, one of the
most distinguished in Cua, its head being the eminent physician Dr.
Acosta, now of Paris, one of the favored circle of the ex-que