DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4593#0090
THE IONIAN ISLES 73
the general agitation seemed to be absolutely un-
moved. He felt perfectly sure, he said, that his hotel
would stand. Did he hold a mortgage on the land?
The next morning at six o'clock occurred the most
powerful shock after the first ruinous one. We were
sleeping, my companion and myself, in two iron bed-
steads, each of which had a frame above, terminating
in a gilded crown for the support of a mosquito net-
ting. The affirmation of Shakspere, " Uneasy lies the
head that wears a crown," seemed to have in it an ele-
ment of prediction. The King of Greece, however,
had taken off his crown, or the jaunty little yachting-
cap that serves the same purpose, and gone to a safe
place on his yacht. Our gilded crowns were a part of
the bedstead. I do not know how the king felt, but
as for myself, the sensation I had at six o'clock that
morning was unlike anything I had ever experienced.
For a moment it seemed as if the bottom had dropped
out of everything. We waited expectantly for the
tremendous crash with which the building would col-
lapse and bury us in its ruins. What a mighty ague!
It was not a wave, not an undulation, but a wrench-
ing, shivering, shattering, Titanic power. It is only
three or four seconds in duration, but each second is
a brief eternity. What can you do? If you are able
to rush into the street, you may be killed by your
neighbor's walls; if you stay in your house, you may
be buried under your own. On the whole, the safest
thing is to do nothing. Your fate will be decided for
you.
One needs to experience an earthquake to know
what terror might reside in the old time in the desig-
nation of Poseidon as the earthshakcr. Had the sea
the general agitation seemed to be absolutely un-
moved. He felt perfectly sure, he said, that his hotel
would stand. Did he hold a mortgage on the land?
The next morning at six o'clock occurred the most
powerful shock after the first ruinous one. We were
sleeping, my companion and myself, in two iron bed-
steads, each of which had a frame above, terminating
in a gilded crown for the support of a mosquito net-
ting. The affirmation of Shakspere, " Uneasy lies the
head that wears a crown," seemed to have in it an ele-
ment of prediction. The King of Greece, however,
had taken off his crown, or the jaunty little yachting-
cap that serves the same purpose, and gone to a safe
place on his yacht. Our gilded crowns were a part of
the bedstead. I do not know how the king felt, but
as for myself, the sensation I had at six o'clock that
morning was unlike anything I had ever experienced.
For a moment it seemed as if the bottom had dropped
out of everything. We waited expectantly for the
tremendous crash with which the building would col-
lapse and bury us in its ruins. What a mighty ague!
It was not a wave, not an undulation, but a wrench-
ing, shivering, shattering, Titanic power. It is only
three or four seconds in duration, but each second is
a brief eternity. What can you do? If you are able
to rush into the street, you may be killed by your
neighbor's walls; if you stay in your house, you may
be buried under your own. On the whole, the safest
thing is to do nothing. Your fate will be decided for
you.
One needs to experience an earthquake to know
what terror might reside in the old time in the desig-
nation of Poseidon as the earthshakcr. Had the sea