One body was that of an old woman who was sitting with her right arm
raised as though to ward off the advancing danger. The second was that
of a child about eight years old. It was found dead in a position, which
would indicate that the child had fallen with a little dog close to it
and had died with one arm raised across its face, to protect itself
and pet from the crumbling ruins. The third body, that of a woman, was
reduced to an unrecognizable mass. These three victims were reverently
laid side by side while a procession of friends and relatives offered up
prayers beside them.
One soldier rode his horse through the ashes reaching up to its flanks,
calling out, "Who wants help?" He was rewarded by hearing a woman's
voice reply in weak tones and, springing from his horse, he floundered
through the ashes to the ruined walls of a house from which the voice
seemed to come. As he made his way through the soft, treacherous
layer of scoriae which surrounded the destroyed habitation, and with
difficulty worked his way toward the building the soldier shouted
words of encouragement and, climbing over a heap of ruins and braving a
toppling wall, entered the building. In the cellar he found the bodies
of three children. Near them was a woman, barely alive, who by almost
superhuman efforts for hours had succeeded in freeing herself from a
mass of debris which had fallen upon her. The soldier picked the woman
up in his arms and carried her to a place of safety.
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