It was about a month after my return to consciousness before I was able to leave my kind nurses.
When I did so I went to Casamicciola.
I searched amongst the ruins of my house and found my bureau. Of course, all my money was gone, but in one of the drawers was the certificate of my death and burial.
My valet, not knowing where to send it, had evidently put it there.
I engaged a man, and together we searched for the vault.
But having a very faint idea of where it was, and the earthquake having torn the ground about, we were unable to find it.
He (the man) evidently looked upon me as a harmless lunatic.
I wrote to my bankers, and having received some money, made my kind nurses a substantial present, and soon after left the land of so many unpleasant memories.
Often I dream I am again in the caves, and wake, wet with perspiration, and with a prayer of thankfulness on my lips, to find it is only a dream.
There is little more to be told, I must have passed about twelve days in the cave, from the 15th to the 28th or 29th of July.
I have given a truthful and unembellished
