not certain
how long it lasted. When the room left off rocking, Giuseppe put out his
hand for the match-box, but the table was no longer by his bedside. He
heard cries for help, and a man who was sleeping in the next room came
with a light, then he saw that the floor of his room had fallen, but not
under his bed, which was in a corner. He and the man with the light
managed to get to the window and let themselves down into a side street,
but they saw no way out because the exit was closed by the fallen houses.
Their window was on the first floor and they climbed back into the house,
helped another man who was there, got themselves some clothes and
returned into the side street. Here they felt no better off and were
afraid of the houses falling on them, but Giuseppe's soldier servant,
Giulio Giuli, a contadino of Nocera, appeared among them. He had come to
look for his master and crept through the ruins into the side street. He
told them that Messina was destroyed, which they would not believe;
everyone seems to have supposed at first that the earthquake had only
damaged his own house. Giulio showed them the way out, and so they got
into the town and realised the extent of the disaster. If Giulio had not
come, Giuseppe and his friends would probably have been destroyed by more
houses falling into their narrow street before they could have found a
way out.

Giuseppe had changed his bedroom about ten days previously. The house he
used to live in was completely destroyed, he showed me a photograph of
its ruins. His mother and his brother Giovanni, in Catania, heard of the
disaster, but could get no particulars because communication was broken.
Giovanni went to Messina to inquire for his brother, not knowing where
his new room was, but he knew the number of his regiment. He stopped a
soldier in the street who was wearing the number in his cap and who told
him where to find Giuseppe. In the meantime Giulio had walked about
fifteen miles to Ali, whence he took the train to Catania, told the
mother her son was safe, and returned to Messina to help in the work of
rescuing victims.

Giuseppe directed his soldiers in the rescue work and afterwards received
a medal "Per speciali benemerenze." While at work they saw a hand among
the ruins and began to dig round it, all the time in fear lest the
disturbing of the rubbish might make matters worse for the victim and for
themselves. The hand belonged to a woman whose head