It was about midnight, when I was suddenly awakened by something pulling at my bed-clothes and heard a low whine at my side. Wondering what could be the matter, I sprang out of bed, and had just hastily slipped on my dressing-gown and slippers, when there was a loud roar like thunder, followed immediately by a terrific crash, and the whole house seemed to be falling. In less time than it takes me to tell you, I was out of my room, flying as fast as my feet would carry me down the stairs, which were rocking so violently I could hardly stand. On I rushed, out through the veranda into the garden, until I found myself--how I know not--clinging desperately to the branches of the twisted pine-tree.
The earth was still trembling, though much less violently, but I expected at any moment another, and possibly a stronger, shock to follow and the ground to open and swallow me up. However, all gradually became still, and I was able to look around me and realize what had happened.
What a strange scene it was!
The black crows, which had been much disturbed by my sudden intrusion to their roosting-place, cawed harshly as they flapped down from the branches above me, brushing heavily against me with their great black wings in their flight. The ground all around was covered with its pure mantle of snow, white and peaceful, as if no terrific force of nature lay below, ready at any moment to blot it out for ever.
The moon, shining through the fleecy clouds, looked down calm and cold. The cries of children, the barking of many dogs, the twittering of birds awakened from their slumbers, were heard on all sides, whilst, as I climbed down from my perch, I discovered it was decidedly cold, and that a tree is not the most agreeable place in which to spend a winter’s night.
On approaching the house, which I found, almost to my surprise, to be still standing, I was greeted with many anxious inquiries as to my disappearance, and by loud barks of joy from my faithful Chang. Later on I realized how much I owed to him, as, on going up to my room, I discovered that a large piece of plaster from the ceiling had fallen on my bed and, had I not been warned in time, I should most certainly have been severely injured, if not killed.
Slight shocks continued at intervals, and I spent the remainder of the night on the drawing-room sofa. The earthquake had evidently unhinged Dodo’s inquiring mind, as at each recurring tremor he rushed frantically round and round in a circle, howling dismally, and would not be pacified.
Chang, being more philosophic--like all Celestials--considered that his duty lay in defending his mistress from that ‘terrible subterranean fish, whose tail was the cause of so much disturbance’--Japanese superstition--and lay down calmly at my feet; with one ear, however, well on the alert, to be prepared for all emergencies.
The next morning we found the town was a scene of desolation, and had the appearance of a bombarded city. There were cracks in the ground in some places five feet wide, walls down, roofs off, chimneys shattered, our dear little church destroyed, and, worse than all, the reported loss of many lives, though, happily, of no Europeans.
An earthquake evidently takes people differently. Several persons I heard of afterwards, mad with fear, had jumped from the upper windows of their houses, and were more or less seriously injured. One lady I knew, had retired under her bed, whilst her husband, in the act of running from the house, suddenly remembered he had left behind him, not his wife, but his favourite cigar-case, which he promptly returned for and rescued! One of the servants took refuge on the roof, another in the arms of her more-valiant half in violent hysterics. Others flew wildly hither and thither, whilst a few had sufficient presence of mind to station themselves in the doorways.