Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1853-04-14

"ile; and one village chapel was swept half a
league from its foundation. Of those who were
Immediately exposed, only three escaped. One
child and servant were dug out the day after,
and perhaps more vivid idea of the calamity
may be got from The story Of the servant, Fran
cisca, than from any vague conception.
1t was about teatime of September after
noon. She was sitting in back room, amusing
the child when she heard some one shout, Run
tor your life" She snatched up the child, jumped
towards the door, but before she reached it. the
house was struck and sent spinning down the
valley. She instantly lost the child, and was
thrown from the floor against the ceiling, against
the sides, every way: the furniture, and shortly
the broken boards of the floor joining in this
strange dance, beams cracking and sDlintering
with terrific noise, and the house gradually fall.
ing to pieces. Presently it stopped. Awaking
from her giddy dizzy delirum, she discovered
that she was alive, and brushing away the blood
t+ws'sh aasisa hsreyea, che found herself almost
suilocated, lin the dark, her body half crushed
and immoveable ammed between beams and
broken stones, her feet uppermost Shortly af-
ter she was amazed to hear the child near her
crying. She spoke TO her. The child said she
was against some stones, and couldn't move. but
she saw the daylight and some bushes, and she
wanted to know what the matter was, and when
people were going to take her out. Francisco
was shocked, and told her with usual simplicity,
that it was the day of judgment. That there
were no people left. That presently she would
lind herself in bright light, and that would be
heaven, and she mustn't be frightened, but must
pray. So they prayed till the child got tired and
cried for her supper
About this time Francisco heard village
clock which disproved her theory, and comforted
her. She soothed the chid's cries. which finally
ceased :enterely, and she thought her asleep. All
nIghtthe poor woman passed in this cruel posture,
and it Is curious that her suffering was not so
much from bruises or loss of blood, as the ex.
ceedlng coldness Of her teet AT last, by prodig-
lous effort, she partially extricated her legs and
so waited death. With the new day, dim light
reached her, and the child awoke, and again
moaned. These means the father heard, for it
happened that he was near, digging the bodies
OF his wife and smaller child out of the ground j.
where they had been found The child, when
released said she had been talking with Fran
clsca, and by great deal of labor, she was
rescued and saved. The chiIds thigh was broken
and the servant was for long time blind, and
what was quite excusabe was always subject
afterwards to commissions Of terror.
The other child saved was an infant, found
lying on its straw mattress upon stream of mud,
with no vestige of the house in which it had been
left! Four hundred and fifty men, women and
children we're buried alive in the mass and about
pan hsn'leeef 9isr saiia saiia dss 4nd susaes
over the choas of the valley, and men have built
road over it, and a church and tavern on the
site of the principle village destroyed but the
mountain side is bare and scathed, and the ter
rlble ruin will be forever evident