mprehending
the mountains of Libanus and Antilibanus, with an infinite number of
villages, that were reduced to heaps of rubbish. At Acra, or Ptolemais,
the sea overflowed its banks, and poured into the streets, though eight
feet above the level of the water. The city of Saphet was entirely
destroyed, and the greatest part of its inhabitants perished. At
Damascus, all the minarets were overthrown, and six thousand people lost
their lives. The shocks diminished gradually till the twenty-fifth day
of November, when they were renewed with redoubled havoc; the earth
trembled with the most dreadful convulsions, and the greater part of
Tripoli was destroyed. Balbeck was entirely ruined, and this was the
fate of many other towns and castles; so that the people who escaped
the ruins were obliged to sojourn in the open fields, and all Syria was
threatened with the vengeance of heaven. Such a dangerous ferment arose
at Constantinople, that a revolution was apprehended. Mustapha, the
present emperor, had no sons; but his brother Bajazet, whose life he had
spared, contrary to the maxims of Turkish policy, produced a son by
one of the women with whom he was indulged in his confinement; a
circumstance which aroused the jealousy of the emperor to such a degree,
that he resolved to despatch his brother. The great officers of the
Porte opposed this design, which was so disagreeable to the people,
that an insurrection ensued. Several Turks and Armenians, taking it for
granted that a revolution was at hand, bought up great quantities of
grain; and a dreadful dearth was the consequence of this monopoly.
The sultan assembled the troops, quieted the insurgents, ordered the
engrossers of corn to be executed, and in a little time the repose of
the city was reestablished.

Notwithstanding the prospect of a rupture in Italy, no new incident
interrupted the tranquillity which the southern parts of Europe enjoyed.
The king of Spain, howsoever solicited by the other branch of the house
of Bourbon to engage in the war as its ally, refused to interpose in
any other way than as a mediator between the courts of London and
Versailles. He sent the conde de Fuentes, a nobleman of high rank and
character, in quality of ambassador-extraordinary to the king of Great
Britain, in order to offer his good offices for effecting a peace; and
the conde, after having conferred with the English minister, made an
excursion to Paris: but his proposal with respect to a