The Whig standard. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1843-1844, 1844-06-05
A STORM IN NAPLES.
BY M. DUMAS.

| f
At midnight, when we returned to Naples, the
weather was perfect, the sky cloudless, the sea
without ripple. At three in the morning l was
awakened by the windows Of my room bursting
open, their eighteen panes Of glass falling upon
the floor with a frightful clatter. | jumped out
of bed, and felt that the house was shaking. |
thought Of Pliny the Elder, and having no desire
for similar fate, / hastily pulled on my clothes
and hurried out into the corridor. My first i'm
pulse had apparently been that of all the inmates
of the hotel, who were all standing, more or less
dressed, at the doors of their apartments amongst
others, Jadin, who made his appearance with a
phosphorus box in his hand, and his dog Milford
at his heels. "What terrible draught in the
house !" said he to me. This same draught, as
he called it, had just carried off the roof of the
Prince of San Feodoro's palace, including the
garrets and several servants who were sleeping
in them.
My first thought had been Of an irruption Of
Vesuvius, but there was no such luck for us J; It
was merely hurricane. A hurricane at Naples,
however, is rather different from the same thing
in any other European country.
Out of seventy windows Of the hotels, three
only escaped damage. The ceilings of seven'or
eight rooms were rent across. There was crack
extending from top to bottom of the house. Eight
shutters had been carried away, and the servants
were running down the street after them, Just as
one runs after ones hat on a windy day. Inn
broken glass was swept away as for sending for
GLACIERS to mend the windows it was out OF the
question. AT Naples nobody thinks Of disturbing
himself at three in the morning. Besides, even
had the new panes been put in, they would have
soon shared the fate of the old ones. We were
obliged, therefore, to manage as well as we could
with the shutters. | was tolerabIy lucky, for
had only lost one of mine. | went to bed again,
and tried to sleep but storm of thunder and
lightning soon rendered that impossible, and
took refuge on the ground floor, where the wind
had done less damage. Then began one of.those
storms of which we had no idea in the more nor
thern parts of Europe. 1t was accompanied by
deluge such as | never witnessed, except per-
haps in Calabra. In an instant the Villa Keae
appeared to be part of the sea; the water came
up to the windows Of the ground floor, and flood
ed the parlors. minute afterwards, the servants
came to tell M. Zi that his cellars were full and
his casks of wine floating about and STAYING one
another. Presently we saw jackass come SWIM
ming down the street, carried by the current
He was swept away into large open drain, and
disappeared The peasant who owned him, and
who had also been carried away, only saved him
self from like fate by cliDging to lamp-post.-
In one hour there fell more water than there falls
in Paris during the two wettest months in the
year,
Two hours after the cessation of the rain, the
water had disappeared, and then perceived the
use of this kind Of deluge. The streets were
clean, which they never are in Naples except af-
ter food Of this sort.