A MONTH BENEATH AN AVALANCHE--(_continued_)
"It is now proper I should say something of the most marvellous
circumstance, attending this very singular and surprising accident, I
mean their manner of supporting life, during so long and close a
confinement. I shall relate what I have heard of it from their own
mouths, being the same, in substance, with what Count Nicholas de
Brandizzo, intendant of the city and province of Cuneo, heard from them
on the sixteenth of May, when, by order of our most benevolent
sovereign, he repaired to Bergemoletto, effectually to relieve these
poor women, and the rest of the inhabitants, who had suffered by the
valanca.
"To begin then; on the morning of the twenty-ninth of March, our three
poor women, expecting every minute to hear the bell toll for prayers,
had in the mean time, taken shelter from the rigour of the weather, in a
stable built with stones, such as are usually found in these quarters,
with a roof composed of large thin stones, not unlike slate, laid on a
beam ten inches square, and covered with a small quantity of straw, and
with a pitch sufficient to carry off the rain, hail or snow, that might
fall upon it. In the same stable were six goats, (four of which I heard
nothing of) an ass and some hens. Adjoining to this stable, was a little
room, in which they had fixed a bed, and used to lay up some provisions,
in order to sleep in it in bad weather without being obliged to go for
anything to the dwelling-house, which lay about one hundred feet from
it. I have already taken notice, that Mary Anne was looking from the
door of the stable at her husband and son, who were clearing the roof of
its snow, when warned by a horrible noise, the signal by which the
Alpineer knows the tumbling of the valancas, she immediately took
herself in with her sister-in-law, her daughter, and her little boy of
two years old, and shut the door, telling them the reason for doing it
in such a hurry. Soon after they heard a great part of the roof give
way, and some stones fall on the ground, and found themselves involved
on all sides with a pitchy darkness; all which they attributed, and with
good reason, to the fall of some valanca. Upon this, they for some time
thought proper to keep a profound silence, to try if they could hear any
noise, and by that means have the comfort of knowing that help was at
hand, but they could hear nothing. They therefore set themselves to
grope about the stable, but without being able to meet with anything
but solid snow. Anne light upon the door, and opened it, hoping she had
found out the way to escape the imminent danger they thought they were
in of the buildings tumbling about their ears; but she could not
distinguish the least ray of light, nor feel any thing but a hard and
impenetrable wall of snow, with which she acquainted her fellow
prisoners. They, therefore, immediately began to bawl out with all their
might; 'help, help, we are still alive'; repeating it several times; but
not hearing any answer, Anne put the door to again. They continued to
grope about the stable, and Mary Anne having light upon the manger, it
occurred to her, that, as it was full of hay, they might take up their
quarters there, and enjoy some repose, till it should please the
Almighty to send them assistance. The manger was about twenty inches
broad, and lay along a wall, which, by being on one side supported by an
arch, was enabled to withstand the shock, and upheld the chief beam of
the roof, in such a manner, as to prevent the poor women from being
crushed to pieces by the ruins. Mary Anne placed herself in the manger,
putting her son by her, and then advised her daughter and her
sister-in-law to do so too. Upon this, the ass which was tied to the
manger, frightened by the noise, began to bray and prance at a great
rate; so that, fearing lest he should bring the parapet of the manger,
or even the wall itself about their ears; they immediately untied the
halter, and turned him adrift. In going from the manger, he stumbled
upon a kettle that happened to lie in the middle of the stable, which
put Mary Anne upon picking it up, and laying it by her, as it might
serve to melt the snow in for their drink, in case they should happen to
be confined long enough to want that resource. Anne, approving this
thought, got down, and groping on the floor till she had found it, came
back to the manger.
"In this situation the good women continued many hours, every moment
expecting to be relieved from it; but, at last, being too well
convinced, that they had no immediate relief to expect, they began to
consider how they might support life, and what provisions they had with
them for that purpose. Anne recollected that the day before she had put
some chestnuts into her pocket, but, on counting them, found they
amounted only to fifteen. Their chief hopes, therefore, and with great
reason now rested on thirty or forty cakes, which two days before had
been laid up in the adjoining room. The reader may well imagine, though
Anne had never told me a word of it, with what speed and alertness she
must, on recollecting these cakes, have got out of the manger, to see
and find out the door of the room where they lay; but it was to no
purpose; she roved and roved about the stable to find out what she
wanted, so that she was obliged to come as she went, and take up her
seat again amongst her fellow-sufferers, who still comforted themselves
with the hopes of being speedily delivered from that dark and narrow
prison. In the mean while, finding their appetite return, they had
recourse to their chestnuts. The rest of the chestnuts they reserved for
a future occasion. They then addressed themselves to God, humbly
beseeching him to take compassion on them, and vouchsafe in his great
mercy to rescue them from their dark grave, and from the great miseries
they must unavoidably suffer, in case it did not please him to send them
immediate assistance. They spent many hours in ejaculations of this
kind, and then thinking it must be night, they endeavoured to compose
themselves. Margaret and the little boy, whose tender years prevented
their having any idea of what they had to suffer in their wretched
situation, or any thought of death, and of what they must suffer, before
they could be relieved, fell asleep. But it was otherwise with Mary Anne
and Anne, who could not get the least rest, and spent the whole night in
prayer, or in speaking of their wretched condition, and comforting one
another with the hopes of being speedily delivered from it. As it seemed
to them, after many hours, that it was day again, they endeavoured to
keep up their spirits with the thoughts, that Joseph with the rest of
their friends and relations not getting any intelligence of their
situation, would not fail of doing all that lay in their power to come
at them. The sensation of hunger was earliest felt by the two youngest;
and the little boy crying out for something to eat, and there being
nothing for him but the chestnuts, Anne gave him three.
"I said, that these women seemed to have some notion of the approach of
day and night, but I should never have dreamed in what manner this idea
could be excited in them, shut up as they were in a body of ice,
impervious to the least ray of light, had not they themselves related it
to me. The hens shut up in the same prison, were it seems the clocks,
which by their clucking all together, made them think the first day that
it was night, and then again after some interval that it was day again.
This is all the notion they had of day and night for two weeks together;
after which, not hearing the hens make any more noise, they no longer
knew when it was day or night.
"This day the poor women and the boy supported themselves with their
chestnuts; and at the return of the usual signal of night, the boy and
Margaret went to sleep; while the mother and aunt spent it in
conversation and prayer. On the next day the ass by his braying, gave
now and then, for the last time, some signs of life. On the other hand,
the poor prisoners had something to comfort themselves with; for they
discovered two goats making up to the manger. This, therefore, was a
joyful event, and they gave the goats some of the hay they sat upon in
the manger, shrunk up with their knees to their noses. It then came into
Anne's head to try if she could not get some milk from the milch goat;
and recollecting that they used to keep a porringer under the manger for
that purpose, she immediately got down to look for it, and happily found
it. The goat suffered herself to be milked, and yielded almost enough to
fill the cup which contained above a pint. On this they lived the third
day. The night following the boy and the girl slept as usual, while
neither of the two others closed their eyes. Who can imagine how long
the time must have appeared to them, and how impatient they must have
been to see an end to their sufferings? This, after offering their
prayers to the Almighty, was the constant subject of their conversation.
'O, my husband,' Mary Anne used to cry out, 'if you two are not buried
under some of the valancas and dead; why do not you make haste to give
me, your sister, and children, that assistance which we so much stand in
need of? We are thank God, still alive, but cannot hold out much longer,
so it will soon be too late to think of us.' 'Ah, my dear brother,'
added Anne, 'in you next to God, have we placed all our trust. We are
alive, indeed, and it depends upon you to preserve our lives, by digging
us out of the snow and the ruins, in which we lie buried.' 'But let us
still hope,' both of them added, 'that as God has been pleased to spare
our lives, and provide us with the means of prolonging it, he will still
in his great mercy put it into the hearts of our friends and relations
to use all their endeavours to save us.' To this discourse succeeded new
prayers, after which they composed themselves as well as they could, in
order to get, if possible, a little sleep.
"The hens having given the usual signal of the return of day, they began
again to think on the means of spinning out their lives. Mary Anne
bethought herself anew of the cakes put up in the adjacent room; and
upon which, could they but get at them, they might subsist a great while
without any other nourishment. On the first day of their confinement,
they had found in the manger a pitch fork, which they knew used to be
employed in cleaning out the stable, and drawing down hay through a
large hole in the hay-loft, which lay over the vault. Anne observed,
that such an instrument might be of service in breaking the snow, and
getting at the cakes, could they but recover the door leading into the
little room. She, therefore, immediately got out of the manger, from
which she had not stirred since the first day, and groping about,
sometimes meeting with nothing but snow, sometimes with the wall, and
sometimes loose stones, she, at length, light upon a door, which she
took for the stable door, and endeavoured to open it as she had done the
first day, but without success; an evident sign that the superincumbent
snow had acquired a greater degree of density, and pressed more forcibly
against it. She, therefore, made step by step, the best of her way back
to the manger, all the time conversing with her fellow-sufferers; and
taking the fork with her, continued to rove and grope about, till at
last she light upon a smooth and broad piece of wood, which to the touch
had so much the appearance of the little door, as to make her hope she
had at last found what she had been so earnestly looking for. She then
endeavoured to open it with her hand, but finding it impossible, told
the rest that she had a mind to employ the pitch fork; but Mary Anne
dissuaded her from doing so. 'Let us,' said she, 'leave the cakes where
they are a little longer, and not endanger our lives any further, by
endeavouring to preserve them. Who knows but with the fork, you might
make such destruction, as to bring down upon our heads, that part of the
stable that still continues together, and which, in its fall, could not
fail of crushing us to pieces. No, God keep us from that misfortune.
Lay down your fork Anne, and come back to us, submitting yourself to the
holy will of the Almighty, and patiently accept at his hands whatever he
may please to send us.' Anne, moved by such sound and affecting
arguments and reasons, immediately let the fork fall out of her hands,
and returned to the manger. 'Let us,' continued Mary Anne, 'let us make
as much as we can of our nursing goats, and endeavour to keep them alive
by supplying them with hay. Here is a good deal in the manger, and it
occurs to me, that when that is gone, we may supply them from another
quarter, for by putting up my hand, trying what was above me, I have
discovered that there is hay in the loft, and that the hole to it is
open, and just over our heads; so that we have nothing to do, but to
pull it down for the goats, whose milk we may subsist upon, till it
shall please God to dispose otherwise of us."
This reasoning was not only sound in itself, but supported by facts; for
ever since their confinement, they had heard stones fall from time to
time upon the ground, and these stones could be no others than those of
the building, which the shock of the valanca had first loosened, and
which the weight it every day acquired by encreasing in density,
afterwards enabled it to displace. Wherefore, had she happened to
disturb with the pitch-fork, as there was the greatest reason to fear
she might, any of those parts, which, united together, served to keep
up the beam that supported the great body of snow, under which they lay
buried, the fall of the stable, and their own destruction, must have
infallibly been the consequence of it.
"This day the sensation of hunger was more and more lively and
troublesome, without their having anything to allay it with but snow,
and the milk yielded them by one of the goats their fellow prisoners. I
say one of the goats for as yet they had milked but one of them,
thinking it would be useless, or rather hurtful, even if they could, to
take any milk from that in kid. Anne had recourse to the other, and in
the whole day, got from her about two pints of milk, on which, with the
addition of a little snow, they subsisted."
The little boy, unable to struggle against the terrible conditions, grew
rapidly weaker and weaker, and the time had now come when he passed
painlessly away.
"The death of this poor child proved the severest trial that the three
women, the two eldest especially, had to suffer during their long
confinement; and from this unfortunate day, the fear of death, which
they considered as at no great distance, began to haunt them more and
more. The little nourishment, which the goat yielded the poor women, had
made them suffer greatly on the preceding days; they were, besides,
benumbed, or rather frozen with the intense cold. Add to this the
necessary, but inconvenient and tormenting posture of their feet, knees,
and every other part of their bodies; the snow, which melting over their
heads, perpetually trickled down their backs, so that their clothes, and
their whole bodies were perfectly drenched with it: they were often on
the point of swooning away, and obliged to keep themselves from
fainting, by handling the snow, and putting some of it into their
mouths; the thirst with which their mouths were constantly burnt up; the
thoughts, that in all this time no one had been at the pains to look for
and relieve them; the consideration, that all they had hitherto
suffered, was nothing in comparison of what they had still to suffer
before they could recover their liberty, or sink under the weight of all
the evils which encompassed them; all these, certainly, were
circumstances sufficient to render them to the last degree, wretched and
miserable. Add to this, that the milk of their fond and loving nurse,
fell away little by little, till at length, instead of about two pints,
which she, in the beginning used to yield, they could not now get so
much as a pint from her. The hay that lay in the manger was all out, and
it was but little the poor women could draw out of the hole which lay
above them; so that as the goats had but little fodder, little
sustenance could be expected from that which they thought proper to
milk. These animals were become so tame and familiar, in consequence of
the fondness shewn them, that they always came on the first call to the
person that was to milk them, affectionately licking her face and hands.
Anne, encouraged by this tameness of theirs, bethought herself of
accustoming them to leap upon the manger, and from thence upon her
shoulders, so as to reach the hole of the hay-loft, and feed themselves;
so apt is hard necessity to inspire strength and ingenuity. She began by
the goat that yielded them milk, helping her up into the manger, and
then putting her upon her shoulders. This had the desired effect, the
animal being thereby enabled to reach much further with its head, than
they could with their hands. They did then the same by the other goat,
from whom, as soon as she should drop her kid, they expected new relief.
She, too, in the same manner, found means to get at the hay, which
afforded the poor women some relief in the midst of their pressing
necessity. After this day, the goats required no further assistance,
they so soon learned to leap of themselves on the manger, and from
thence on the women's shoulders. But we must not conclude that hunger
was the chief of the poor women's sufferings; far from it. After the
first days, during which it proved a sore torment to them, they through
necessity, grew so accustomed to very little and very light nourishment,
that they no longer felt any sensation of that kind, but lived
contentedly on the small quantity of milk they could get from their
goat, mixed with a little snow. Their breath was what gave them most
uneasiness; for it began to be very difficult on the fifth or sixth day,
every inspiration being attended with the sensation of a very heavy and
almost insupportable load upon them.
"They now had lost all means of guessing at the returns of night and
day, and their only employment was to recommend themselves fervently to
God, beseeching him to take compassion of them, and at length, put an
end to their miseries, which increased from day to day. At last, their
nurse growing dry, they found themselves without any milk, and obliged
to live upon snow alone for two or three days, Mary Anne not approving
an expedient proposed by her sister. This was to endeavour to find the
carcasses of the hens; for as they had not heard them for some days
past, they had sufficient reason to think they were dead; and then eat
them, as the only thing with which they could prolong life. But Mary
Anne, rightly judging that it would be almost impossible to strip them
clean of their feathers, and that besides, the flesh might be so far
putrified, as to do them more harm than good, thought proper to dissuade
her sister from having recourse to this expedient. But the unspeakable
providence of God, whose will it was that they should live, provided
them with new means of subsistence, when least they expected it, by the
kidding of the other goat. By this event, they judged themselves to be
about the middle of April; wherefore, after offering God their most
humble thanks, for having preserved them so long, in the midst of so
many, and such great difficulties they again beseeched him to assist
them effectually, till they could find an opportunity of escaping their
doleful prison, and see an end to their great sufferings. Their hopes of
this their humble supplication being heard, were raised on the
appearance of this new supply, and on their reflecting that the snow
begins to thaw in April, in consequence of which that about the stable
would soon dissolve enough to let some ray of light break in upon them.
Mary Anne told me, that, though she was thoroughly sensible of the
badness of her condition, in which it was impossible for her to hold out
much longer, and saw it every day grow worse and worse; she never,
however, despaired of her living to be delivered. For my part, I cannot
sufficiently admire the courage and intrepidity of Anne, who told me,
that in all this time she never let a tear escape her but once. This was
on its occurring to her, that, as they must at length perish for want,
it might fall to her lot to die last. For the thought of finding herself
amidst the dead bodies of her sister and her niece, herself too in a
dying condition, terrified and afflicted her to such a degree, that she
could no longer command her tears, but wept bitterly.
"I observed, that the goat had kidded. This event afforded the poor
women a new supply of milk, Anne for a while getting two porringers at a
time from her, with which they recruited themselves a little. But as the
goats began to fall short of hay, the milk of the only one that gave
them any, began to lessen in proportion, so that at length they saw
themselves reduced to a single, and even half a porringer. It was,
therefore, happy for them, that the time drew nigh, in which God had
purposed to rescue them from their horrible prison and confinement, and
put an end to their sufferings. One time they thought they could hear a
noise of some continuance at no great distance from them. This was
probably the 20th, when the parish priest's body was found. And, upon
it, they all together raised their weak and hoarse voices, crying out,
'Help, help!' but the noise ceased, and they this time neither saw nor
heard anything else that might serve as a token of their deliverance
being at hand. However, this noise alone was sufficient to make them
address God with greater fervour than ever, beseeching him to have
compassion on them, and to confirm them still more and more in their
warm hopes, that the end of their long misery was not far off. In fact,
they again heard another noise, and that nearer them, as though
something had fallen to the ground. On this they again raised their
voices, and again cried out, 'Help, help': but no one answered, and soon
after the noise itself entirely ceased. Their opinion concerning this
noise, and in this they certainly were not mistaken, was that it came
from the people, who were at work to find them, and who left off at the
approach of night, and went home with a design to return to their labour
the next morning. After the noise of the body fallen to the ground in
their neighbourhood, they seemed for the first time to perceive some
glimpse of light. The appearance of it scared Anne and Margaret to the
last degree, as they took it for a sure fore-runner of death, and
thought it was occasioned by the dead bodies; for it is a common opinion
with the peasants that those wandering wild-fires, which one frequently
sees in the open country, are a sure presage of death to the persons
constantly attended by them, which ever way they turn themselves; and
they accordingly call them death fires. But Mary Anne, was very far
from giving in to so silly a notion. On the contrary the light inspired
her with new courage, and she did all that lay in her power to dissipate
the fears of her sister and daughter, revive their hopes in God, and
persuade them that their deliverance and the end of all their sufferings
was at hand; insisting that this light could be no other than the light
of heaven, which had, at last, reached the stable, in consequence of the
valanca's melting, and still more in consequence of the constant boring
and digging into it by their relations, in order to come at their dead
bodies. Mary Anne guessed right for it was the next day that Anthony
descended into the ruins of the stable, and to his unspeakable surprise
found the poor women alive, blessing and exalting the most high, and
restored them from darkness to light, from danger to security, from
death to life, by drawing them out of the manger, and removing them to
the house of Joseph Arnaud, where they continued to the end of July.
"Thirty-seven entire days did these poor women live in the most horrible
sufferings occasioned no less by filth and the disagreeable posture they
were confined to, than by cold and hunger; but the Lord was with them.
He kept them alive, and they are still living, in a new cottage built
the same year in the Foresta of Bergemoletto, at no great distance from
their former habitation."