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o'clock; about which time the wind aroſe, and the ſea began to roar in a moſt tremendous and uncommon manner. As yet, we had not any pre-ſentiment of the diſtreſs and danger which it was ſoon afterwards our unhappy fortune to encounter and although between two and three o'clock in the afternoon, we ſaw the ſubordinat buildings begin to totter and fall around us; yet we did not think it neceſſary to provide, at that time, for our preſent or future ſafety. We now obſerved, with ſome motion and concern, a poor pigeon ⟨endeavoured⟩ with fruitleſs ſtruggle, to regain its neſt: it ſtuttered long in the air; and was ſo weakened at laſt that it was driven away by the wind, and in almoſt a moment was carried entirely out of ſight.
As great events are ſometimes the conſequence of ſmall beginnings, and as ſimple occurences are often as ſtriking as great concerns, I could not help dwelling with commiſeration upon what I had ſeen and of anticipating, in ſome meaſure, the loſs and inconvenience, though not the real destruction, of what ſoon afterwards enſued.
A poor diſcouraged ewe, intimidated by the terrors of the night, had found its way into the diſtant quarter of the houſe, which, at the time of her retreat, muſt have been wholly neglected; but to which it was afterwards, as our laſt reſort, our unfortunate deſtiny to repair. She lay with patient cold, and fearful trembling, an amidſt the joiſts, not could ſhe be diſplaced by the importunity of kick and cuffs that were inceſſantly dealt around her. She became a pathetic ſufferer in the ſucceeding calamity; and he muſt have been a brute, indeed and more deſerving of the appellation ſhe bare, who could have perſevered in forcing her from ſuch a ſeeming protection, or could have been envious of that ſafety, which; from her unwillingneſs to
