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to make me totally deſpair. I proceeded on as faſt as I conveniently could, though with the utmoſt caution, and having at length got clear of this horrid paſſage, I found myſelf ſafe and unhurt in the large open ſpace before St. Paul's church, which had been thrown down a few minutes before, and buried a great part of the congregation, that was generally pretty numerous, this being reckoned one of the moſt populous pariſhes in Lisbon. Here I ſtood ſome tine, conſidering what I ſhould do, and not thinking myſelf ſafe in this ſituation, I came to the reſolution of climbing over the ruins of the weſt end of the church, in order to get to the river ſide, that I might be removed, as far as poſſible, from the tottering houſes, in caſe of a ſecond ſhock.

'This, with ſome difficulty, I accompliſhed, and there I found a prodigious concourſe of people, of both ſexes, and of all ranks and conditions, among whom I obſerved ſome of the principal canons of the patriarchal church, in their purple robes and clochets, as theſe all go in the habit of biſhops; ſeveral prieſts who had run from the altars in their ſacerdotal veſtments in the midſt of their celebrating maſs; ladies half dreſsed, and ſome without ſhoes; all theſe, whom their mutual dangers had there aſſembled as to a place of ſafety, were on their knees at prayers, with the terrors of death in their countenanccs, every one ſtriking his breaſt, and crying out inceſſantly, Miſerecordia meu Dios.

'In the midſt of our devotions, the ſecond great ſhock came on, little leſs violent than the firſt, and completed the ruin of thoſe buildings which had been already much ſhattered. The conſternation now became ſo univerſal, that the ſhrieks and cries of Miſerecordia could be diſtinctly heard from the top of St. Catherine's hill at a conſiderable diſtance away, whither a vaſt number of people had likewiſe