Order is shattered in a strange guttural tone that resounded
along the walls of the houses, which seemed dead and
deserted, while, behind the closed shutters, eyes watched
the conquerors, who, by right of war, were now masters of
the city and of the lives and fortunes of its people.
In their darkened ruins the inhabitants have given way to
the same feeling of panic which is aroused by natural
cataclysms - those devastating upheavals of the Earth,
against which wisdom and strength alike are of no avail.
Though the same feeling is experienced wherever the
established order of things is upset, when security ceases
to exist, when all that was previously protected by the laws
of man and nature is suddenly placed at the mercy of brutal,
unreasoning force.
The earthquake, burying a whole people beneath the ruins of
their houses; the river in spate, sweeping away the bodies
of drowned peasants, together with the carcasses of cattle
and rafters torn from roofs; and the victorious army
slaughtering all who resist, making prisoners of the rest,
looting by right of the sword, and thanking their god to the
sound of cannon.
All these are terrifying scourges which undermine all our
belief in eternal justice and all the trust we have been
taught to place in divine protection and human reason.
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