DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70267#0118
98 EARTHQUAKE AT LISBON,
dentially escaped from, I judged it safest to return over
the ruins of St. Paul’s to the river side, as the water now
seemed a little agitated. From hence I proceeded, with
some hazard, to the large space before the Irish convent
of Corpo Santo, which had been thrown down, and buried
a great number of people who were hearing mass, besides
some of the friars; the rest of the community were stand-
ing in the area, looking, with dejected countenances, to-
wards the ruins : from this place I took my way to the
back street leading to the Palace, having the ship-yard on
one side, but found the further passage, opening into the
principal street, stopped up, by the ruins of the Opera-
house, one of the solidest and most magnificent buildings
of the kind in Europe, and just finished at a prodigious
expense; a vast heap of stones, each of several tons weight,
had entirely blocked up the front of Mr. Bristow’s house,
which was opposite to it; and Mr. Ward, his partner, told
me, the next day, that he was just at that instant going
out at the door, and had actually set one foot over the
threshold, when the west-end of the Opera-house fell
down, and had he not in a moment started back, he should
have been crushed into a thousand pieces.
From hence I turned back, and attempted getting by the
other way into the great square of the palace, twice as
large as Lincoln’s-inn-fields, one side of which had been
taken up by the noble quay I spoke of, now no more; but
this passage was likewise obstructed by the stones fallen
from the great arched gateway: I could not help taking
particular notice, that all the apartments wherein the Royal
Family used to reside, were thrown down; and themselves,
without some extraordinary miracle, must unavoidably have
perished, had they been there at the time of the shock.—•
Finding this passage impracticable, I turned to the other
arched-way which led to the new Square of the Palace, not
the eighth part so spacious as the other, one side of which
was taken up by the Patriarchal Church, which also served
for
dentially escaped from, I judged it safest to return over
the ruins of St. Paul’s to the river side, as the water now
seemed a little agitated. From hence I proceeded, with
some hazard, to the large space before the Irish convent
of Corpo Santo, which had been thrown down, and buried
a great number of people who were hearing mass, besides
some of the friars; the rest of the community were stand-
ing in the area, looking, with dejected countenances, to-
wards the ruins : from this place I took my way to the
back street leading to the Palace, having the ship-yard on
one side, but found the further passage, opening into the
principal street, stopped up, by the ruins of the Opera-
house, one of the solidest and most magnificent buildings
of the kind in Europe, and just finished at a prodigious
expense; a vast heap of stones, each of several tons weight,
had entirely blocked up the front of Mr. Bristow’s house,
which was opposite to it; and Mr. Ward, his partner, told
me, the next day, that he was just at that instant going
out at the door, and had actually set one foot over the
threshold, when the west-end of the Opera-house fell
down, and had he not in a moment started back, he should
have been crushed into a thousand pieces.
From hence I turned back, and attempted getting by the
other way into the great square of the palace, twice as
large as Lincoln’s-inn-fields, one side of which had been
taken up by the noble quay I spoke of, now no more; but
this passage was likewise obstructed by the stones fallen
from the great arched gateway: I could not help taking
particular notice, that all the apartments wherein the Royal
Family used to reside, were thrown down; and themselves,
without some extraordinary miracle, must unavoidably have
perished, had they been there at the time of the shock.—•
Finding this passage impracticable, I turned to the other
arched-way which led to the new Square of the Palace, not
the eighth part so spacious as the other, one side of which
was taken up by the Patriarchal Church, which also served
for