152

LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

great part to depend on the period of their inhumation, and jon the loss or preservation of hope, in the different parties. iThe young Eloisa Basili, although very handsome, treated i

with every kindness and amusement by her relations, was j

never after known to move her lips into any thing like a smile. jAll those who were buried for any length of time, when inter- jrogated about their sensations, made for answer—“ So far I jremember—further, I thought not, and know nothing.”— |

Most of these persons died at premature ages. EloisaBasili, oppressed with melancholy, refused to marry—nei-ther would she retire to a convent, as recommended by someof her pious friends. Her only pleasure seemed to be insolitude. Seated under a tree, she would sit for hours,her eyes averted from every habitation, and fixed upon thesea. On the appearance of an infant, she involuntarilyturned her head aside.

It may well be imagined, that under such circumstancesof general ruin, the works of salvation towards the over-whelmed, were both feeble and tardy. Money, energy, andtools, were wanting to the greater part of the astounded jsurvivors. But on the whole, far more virtue than vice,more love than indifference, more heroism than delinquency,was seen to belong to the human character. Self-preserva-tion, in all cases of desperate alternative, must generally beexpected to prevail. The histories of famines, plagues,shipwrecks, furnish us with harrowing instances of the factwhich is founded on a law of nature. In the case I am jspeaking of, many very good, and many very bad actionswere performed, but far more of the former than the latter.

It must be remembered, that all the criminals in the differentprisons of Calabria, and part of Sicily , were suddenly liber-ated on the occurrence of the first great shock, as a measuredictated by “ humanity.” As might be expected, many ofthese men took advantage of the circumstances, and gave