Alas! It desolately stands
Without a roof, the gates fallen from their band,
The casements all broke down, no chimney left!
—Allan Ramsay.
The sun rose next morning upon a scene of ruin that defies description.
The house was almost a wreck. The roof, the chimneys, and the shutters of the upper story were gone. The windows were shattered and driven in.
The grounds also were literally laid waste. All traces of field, and garden, and flower yard were washed away. Trees were torn up by the roots, fences were leveled, outbuildings blown down, and all swept away by the flood. Cattle and poultry were drowned, and their bodies carried off by the sea.
Yes! the isle was indeed a desert, and the house was a ruin, with the exception of the lower story, which, having been built of stronger material, and being less exposed to the violence of the wind, had remained entire.
If the scene without was wretched, the scene within was scarcely less so.
The shipwrecked sailors had gone down to the beach for the purpose of searching for the bodies of the drowned men, if, perchance, they might have been thrown up, and of hailing any boat that might pass within hail.