We shall
therefore say nothing of the bodily pain, or of the mental alarm, by which
this ingenious retreat from the flames and the tomahawk had been effected.
The suffering was chiefly confined to apprehension; for as the descent was
easy, so had the readiness and ingenuity of the young men found means, by
the aid of articles of furniture first cast into the shaft, and by
well-secured fragments of the floors properly placed across, both to
render the situation of the females and children less painful than might
at first be supposed, and effectually to protect them from the tumbling
block. But little of the latter however, was likely to affect their
safety, as the form of the building was, in itself, a sufficient security
against the fall of its heavier parts.
The meeting of the family, amid the desolation of the valley, though
relieved by the consciousness of having escaped a more shocking fate, may
easily be imagined. The first act was to render brief but solemn thanks
for their deliverance, and then, with the promptitude of people trained in
hardship, their attention was given to those measures which prudence told
them were yet necessary.
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