At first the new Secretary of State held no higher rank than his colleagues, but his abilities soon became evident to the king, and his conduct at the time of the great earthquake of Lisbon gave him unbounded ascendency over the mind of the monarch. This terrible catastrophe took place on November 1, 1755. The population of the city was collected in the churches listening to the solemn services of All Saints Day, when the first shock of earthquake was felt; it was followed at intervals by three others, which laid half the city in ruins. Most of the unfortunate people, who managed to escape from the falling houses and churches, rushed to the quays. But the disturbance affected the sea also; an immense tidal wave swept the quays, and washed off thousands of the fugitives, while the ships in the river were driven on shore. No element of horror was missing, for fires broke out in all parts of the wrecked city, and the scum of the populace rushed hither and thither, murdering and robbing those whom the calamities of nature had spared. At this fearful juncture the king and Carvalho showed the greatest courage and a most unshaken firmness of demeanour. To the demands of the monarch as to what was to be done, the minister answered laconically, “Bury the dead and feed the living,” and for eight days and nights he lived in his carriage, driving from place to place, whithersoever his presence was needed, and repressing disorder. The news of the disaster spread all over Europe; at least thirty thousand people, according to some accounts one hundred thousand people, lost their lives, and foreign nations were not backward in assisting the remnant of the people of Lisbon. In England the pity felt was keener than anywhere else, owing to the close relationship between the two nations, and large sums of money and great quantities of provisions were promptly despatched from London to Portugal. The catastrophe made an extraordinary impression on the minds of all contemporaries; in London over twenty accounts were published within the year, apart from notices in magazines, and Voltaire in his “Candide” gave a full and, on the whole, very accurate description of it.