The Preservation of my self, and the rest of my Family, about Eleven in Number, was, next to the Providence of God, occasion'd by our running into a Vault almost level with the Kitchen upon the Noise and Alarm of the Falling of the Chimneys, which breaking through three Floors, and about two Minutes in passing, gave us the Opportunities of that Retreat. Pray accept of this short Account from _Your Humble Servant, and Lecturer_, Feb. 12. 1703. James King, _M.A._ Another is from a Reverend Minister at ---- whose Name is to his Letter as follows. _SIR_, I thank you for your charitable Visit not long since; I could have heartily wish'd your Business would have permitted you to have made a little longer Stay at the parsonage, and then you might have taken a stricter View of the Ruins by the late terrible Wind. Seeing you are pleas'd to desire from me a more particular Account of that sad Disaster; I have for your fuller Satisfaction sent you the best I am able to give; and if it be not so perfect, and so exact a one, as you may expect, you may rely upon me it is a true, and a faithful one, and that I do not impose upon you, or the World in the least in any Part of the following Relation. I shall not trouble you with the Uneasiness the Family was under all the fore Part of the Evening, even to a Fault, as I thought, and told them, I did not then apprehend the Wind to be much higher than it had been often on other Times; but went to Bed, hoping we were more afraid than we needed to have been: when in Bed, we began to be more sensible of it, and lay most of the Night awake, dreading every Blast till about Four of the Clock in the Morning, when to our thinking it seemed a little to abate; and then we fell asleep, and slept till about Six of the Clock, at which Time my Wife waking, and calling one of her Maids to rise, and come to the Children, the Maid rose, and hasten'd to her; she had not been up above Half an Hour, but all on the sudden we heard a prodigious Noise, as if part of the House had been fallen down; I need not tell you the Consternation we were all in upon this Alarm; in a Minutes Time, I am sure, I was surrounded with all my Infantry, that I thought I should have been overlay'd; I had not even Power to stir one Limb of me, much less to rise, though I could not tell how to lie in Bed. The Shrieks and the Cries of my dear Babes perfectly stun'd me; I think I hear them still in my Ears, I shall not easily, I am confident, if ever, forget them. There I lay preaching Patience to those little Innocent Creatures, till the Day began to appear.