DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70301#0178
156 kirby’s wonderful museum.
vent its destruction. In the mean time, the clergyman, who
lived in the neighbourhood, and was about leaving home in
order to repair to the church, and gather the people toge-
ther to prayers, perceiving a noise towards the top of the
mountains, looked up, and descried two valancas driving
headlong towards the village. He therefore called out to
give Joseph notice instantly to come down from the roof to
avoid the impending danger; and then immediately retreated
himself into his own house.
Joseph Roccia immediately came off the roof at the
priest’s notice, and with his son ran as fast as he could to-
wards the church. He had scarcely advanced forty steps,
when hearing his son fall just at his heels, he turned about to
assist him. But, by the time he had taken him up, the spot on
which his house, his stable, and those of some of his neighbours
stood, was covered w ith a prodigious mass of snow, which so
completely overwhelmed them that, not the least sign of either
walls or roofs could be perceived. Such was his agony at
this sight, that at the thoughts of having lost in an instant
his wife, his sister, his family, and the little he had saved,
he swooned away, and sunk senseless upon the snow. His
son now helping him in his turn; as soon as he came to
himself he made shift to get to a friend’s house, at a small
distance from the spot where he fell. Mary Anne, his wife,
who w'as standing with her sister-in-law Anne, her daughter
Margaret, and her son Anthony, a little boy two years old,
at the door of the stable looking at the people throwing the
snow from off the houses, and waiting for the ringing of the
bell that was to call them to prayers, was about taking a turn
to the house in order to light a fire, and air a shirt for her
husband, who could not but want that refreshment after his
hard labour. But before she could set out she heard the
priest cry out to them to come down quickly; and raising her
eyes saw the valancas set off, and roll down the side of the
vent its destruction. In the mean time, the clergyman, who
lived in the neighbourhood, and was about leaving home in
order to repair to the church, and gather the people toge-
ther to prayers, perceiving a noise towards the top of the
mountains, looked up, and descried two valancas driving
headlong towards the village. He therefore called out to
give Joseph notice instantly to come down from the roof to
avoid the impending danger; and then immediately retreated
himself into his own house.
Joseph Roccia immediately came off the roof at the
priest’s notice, and with his son ran as fast as he could to-
wards the church. He had scarcely advanced forty steps,
when hearing his son fall just at his heels, he turned about to
assist him. But, by the time he had taken him up, the spot on
which his house, his stable, and those of some of his neighbours
stood, was covered w ith a prodigious mass of snow, which so
completely overwhelmed them that, not the least sign of either
walls or roofs could be perceived. Such was his agony at
this sight, that at the thoughts of having lost in an instant
his wife, his sister, his family, and the little he had saved,
he swooned away, and sunk senseless upon the snow. His
son now helping him in his turn; as soon as he came to
himself he made shift to get to a friend’s house, at a small
distance from the spot where he fell. Mary Anne, his wife,
who w'as standing with her sister-in-law Anne, her daughter
Margaret, and her son Anthony, a little boy two years old,
at the door of the stable looking at the people throwing the
snow from off the houses, and waiting for the ringing of the
bell that was to call them to prayers, was about taking a turn
to the house in order to light a fire, and air a shirt for her
husband, who could not but want that refreshment after his
hard labour. But before she could set out she heard the
priest cry out to them to come down quickly; and raising her
eyes saw the valancas set off, and roll down the side of the