The Bowbells tribune. [volume] (Bowbells, Ward Co., N.D.) 1899-1969, 1906-04-27
| lISBON'S DISASTER RECALLED
Description
Novel, 'The Escape"
Novel, 1.-The Escape

The executioners hurried forward,
the brands were applied to the turf of
the piles, the flames blazed up beneath
their hand-when at that moment there
came a shock as if the earth were clov-
en- asunder, the heavens rent in twain.
A crash, so loud, so fearful, so appall-
ing, as if the whole of Lisbon had
been shivered to it's foundations, and a
shrek, or rather thousands and thou
sands of human voices, blended in one
wild, piercing cry of agony and terror,
seeming to burst from every corner at
the self-same instant, and fraught with
universal woe. The buildings around
shook, as impelled by mighty whirl-
wind, though no such sound was heard
The earth heaved, yawned, closed,
and rocked again, as the pillows of the
ocean were lashed to fury. 1t was a
moment of untold horror. The crowd
assembled to witness martyrs death,
wildly shrieking on every side. Scat
tered to the heaving ground, the blaz-
ing piles lay powerless to injure, their
bonds were shivered, their guards were
fled. One bound brought Alvar
to his wife and he clasped her in his
arms.
Every street and square, and avenue
was choked with shattered ruins, rent
from top to bottom; houses, converts
and churches presented the most fear
full aspect of ruin; while every second
minute new impetus seemed to be
given to the convulsed earth, causing
those that remained still perfect to
rock and rend. Huge stones, falling
IL kl,o
miserable fugitives as they rushed on,
seeking safety they knew not where:
=. None dared ask the fate of
friends-none dared ask, "Who lives?'
in that one scene of universal death.
On, on sped Alvar and his precious
burden! On, over the piles of ruins;
on, unhurt amidst the showers of
stones; which hurled in the air as easily
as ball cast from an infants hand,
fell back again laden with a hundred
deaths; on, amid the rocking and yawn-
ing earth, beholding thousands swal-
lowed up, crushed and MANNED, worse
than death itself, for they were left to
lingering torture-to die thousand
deaths in anticipating one; on, over the
disfgured heaps of dead, and the un-
recognized masses of what had once
been magnificent and gorgeous build
ings.
His eye was we'll nigh blinded with
the shaking and tottering movement Of
all things animate and inanimate be-
fore him; and his path was obscured by
a sudden and awful darkness, which
had changed that bright, glowing hue
of the sunny sky into a pail Of dense
and terrible blackness, becoming thick
er and denser with every succeeding
minute, till darkness which might be
felt, enveloped that city as with the
grim shadow Of death.
His ear was deafened by the appall-
ing sounds of human agony and ma
ture's wrath; for now sounds of hun
dred waterspouts, the dull, continued
roar of subterranean thunder, becom-
ing at times loud as the discharge of a
thousand cannons; at others resembling
the sharp grating sound of hundreds
and hundreds of chariots driven full
speed over the stones; and this min
gled with the piercing shrieks Of wom-
Ell, the hoarser cries and shouts of
men. and the deep, terrible groans of
mental agony and the shriller screams
of instantaneous deaths, had usurped
the place of the previous awful still
ness, till every sense of those who yet