The shell had entered the front wall of the convent, travelled between the iron roof and the ceiling of the rooms, till it reached a wall about 4 feet from where we were sitting.

Against this it had exploded, making a huge hole in the outside wall and in the other which separated our passage from a little private chapel.

In this chapel it had also demolished all the sacred images.

It was not, however, till next day, when we returned to examine the scene of the explosion, that we realized how narrowly we had escaped death or terrible injuries.
Three people had been occupying an area of not more than 5 feet square; between us was a tiny card-table laid with our supper, and on this the principal quantity of the masonry had fallen--certainly 2 tons of red brick and mortar--shattering it to atoms.

If our chairs had been drawn up to the table, we should probably have been buried beneath this mass.
But our most sensational discovery was the fact that two enormous pieces of shell, weighing certainly 15 pounds each, were found touching the legs of my chair, and the smallest tap from one of these would have prevented our ever seeing another sunrise.