It
was the Feast of the Virgin, and the church was densely crowded with a
congregation composed almost entirely of women, principally young,
many of whom were servant-girls. Some of the draperies used in the
decoration of the building caught fire, the flames spread rapidly,
destroying in their course the cords by which the numerous paraffin
and oil lamps were suspended across the nave and aisles, and
precipitating their burning contents upon the people beneath. The
great doors opened inwards; the crowd, trying to press out, closed
them, and kept them hermetically sealed. The priests, anxious to save
the church properties and sacred relics, shut the large iron gates
across the chancel and kept them fastened, notwithstanding the
agonising shrieks of the unhappy victims, many of whom might otherwise
have escaped. Their conduct on this terrible occasion created at the
time a feeling of bitter and universal indignation, and caused a shock
to the popularity and authority of the priesthood in this country,
from which it will take them a long time to recover.
Mr. Long told us that, between seven and eight o'clock on the evening
of the catastrophe, he was walking with some friends on the Alameda,
when he saw smoke rising in dense volumes from the quarter of the city
where the house in which he resided was situated.
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